PALEST INE AWAKE 
THE REBIRTH OF A NATION 





SOPHIE IRENE LOEB 


P 


<n OF PRINGr » 
Bae C4- 1996” 

< 
Le, Ocicar sew 






Division — 


section . 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/palestineawakereOOloeb 


PALESTINE AWAKE 
The Rebirth of a Nation 














AY Ge at Ths te ae ee 
y ) len 2 ato | Pa : 2 

* a} F va. x ee s 1 alt - " - ; 8! ea 
: ms : s ; = - 

oe Ly ae a - An ont y a . 7 abd 


¢ 7 ~s Os 
Y GG, a) 7 7 i e ‘d ae ¢ a 
fe Ne Re th bet ea TO sate ge a] 
TE URROT AER EE Ae Sens 
stay, OO . i ee kG Bers 
cA Vis 4 : i" 
7) \ é ¥ ‘ | re 4 
, hy is ’ bee eo, Bai - 
_ 7 12] i Hah a ‘ ay 
. a 7 ye ’ ., es 
a% i i, i at, a at 
es Os “ ae 
a ie ee wird A 
$e re i ,. We sf," a ! 
Ler | 4 . OF ; 
¥ ine veel A ack f 
vy 
A. e 20 mn 
4 ~s v ; i ‘el 
‘ he i ih hay 
. PON « \ . hh 
7 a ae ed ae A 
4% y) wh Pe aha 
a ; * fi een 


7 we > 5 rs z } : | ie } 
f ; . a / # ass i" hy 
/ 1 Z * ; aa ry es 
4 R i Von ee. ” i 4 af 
ae PERS a 
" a 
ine 
1°, 1 \ te) 
Te; ; a eae 
’ : ‘ W408 
ie ‘ A ere a iy 
pe i Md y+ i ie ~s - 
r ' 7* P tak a 5 4 - 
. ae 
7 rb ( A J \ wed} 
t: av, Alida, oe IAN of! 
. ee a 12 ae! A iy Ors | 
Ps Pes, ny Les: We ey, ee et rd 
" a / + ry i * wa 
oy ‘* —, dy 7 . Li; ta a raha ee 
me an - : ne id - ® s ye ~ . i - r ; ee, i 
are a ot t ‘ 
es yee Wows a Ks } afi Ba 
‘ Ps “ 7 
4 ° ‘ 
i k he es al 





A PATRIARCH OF PALESTINE 


PALESTINE AWAKE 
The Rebirth of a Nation <<“ 05 Piggy 


i 
\ 

~~) 
[) PA Ye AR ee 
a iWZ& 





BY 


hye 

/ Of \\S 
Y OGIcAL Sel 
SOPHIE IRENE LOEB ell 





THE CENTURY CO. 
New York & London 


Copyright, 1926, by 
Tue CENTURY Co. 


PRINTED IN U. 8. A. 


FOREWORD 


I welcome the suggestion that I write a fore- 
word to this book. 

The welfare work in which the author, Sophie 
Irene Loeb, is engaged is the noblest of all mod- 
ern social service. ‘To protect the children, who 
too often are neglected and helpless, is the sacred 
duty of the community. As president of the 
Child Welfare Committee of America and hon- 
orary president of the New York City Board of 
Child Welfare, she has lived and acted up to 
this duty in the highest degree. 

I write this foreword with special pleasure be- 
cause I share her love for Palestine. I believe, 
and always have believed, in its reconstruction. 
Conditions have borne out fully my hopes and 
aspirations. To-day the Holy Land bids fair to 
become again the “land where milk and honey 
flows,” for the benefit of all its inhabitants— 
Arabs, Christians, and Jews alike. 

Without being a prophet I foretell that, as it 


was the cradle of all religions, Palestine will be- 
Vv 


vi FOREWORD 


come the spiritual center of the world. I felt 
this on my first visit in 1904, and repeated pil- 
srimages have only confirmed my belief. 

This caused me to be keenly interested in the 
author’s visit and the insight she gained into all 
the phases of the Palestine problem. I was grati- 
fied that her investigations resulted in the articles 
published in the “Evening World.” In their 
broad conception and unbiased judgment they 
served to enlighten those who were yet ignorant 
of the possibilities of the Holy Land. Put in 
book form, these articles will spread permanently 
and even farther the renewed potential glory of 
the Holy Land. 

This volume, I believe, is the most comprehen- 
sive’ yet presented, setting forth not only the 
economic aspects of the land, but also the great 
romance and idealism inspiring the pioneers who 
are paving the way for the generations to come. 


For out of Zion shall come forth the law 
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 


NATHAN STRAUS. 
Driftwood, 
Mamaroneck, New York, 
August 2, 1926. 


CHAPTER 


I 


II 


VII 


XI 


CONTENTS 


PALESTINE, THE CENTURY’S GREAT Ex- 
PERTRCENUT 0 erga ore ee rN fe 


THE Mayor OF JERUSALEM SEES THE 
Dawn oF A New Day IN THE Hoty 
LAND 


TeL-Aviv, THE MrraActe City oF THE 
FOASTERN SWVORLD ae et 8 


e ° e ° ° e . ° e . 


Tue IDEALIST AND THE DREAMER BACKED 
BY PractTicaAL PIONEERS CU eh ee ee 


THE GOVERNOR OF PALESTINE PAVES THE 
Way For Town PLANNING AND FPREs- 
ERVATION OF Hoty PLACES . 9. : 


THe ZEAL OF THE COLONIST FIRED WITH 
THE SPIRIT OF His ANCESTORS . . . 


EguaL RicHts FoR WoMEN IN THE BIBLE 
Lanp AN ObsyjectT-LESsoN FOR OTHER 
GOT TRIES Me My culins Helv AD nal are 


How THE Money Rarsep BY WoRrLD- 
WipE CONTRIBUTION Is SPENT... 


Tue Bic TAsk oF MAKING PRESENT-DAY 
COTUT EEA TION § coat air ees eal eae eee Ck 


WHERE YouTtH BECOMES THE SCIENTIFIC 
TILER OF THE SOLL SS vhs et ee ke 


THE OPPOSITION TO THE JEWS, AND THE 
PIER ENS HRC Nhe eet can cent aul 
vii 


PAGE 


24. 


34 


55 


66 


73 


81 


88 


93 


vill 
CHAPTER 


XII 


AITI 


XIV 


AV 
XVI 


XVII 


XVIII 


XIX 
XX 


XXI 


XXII 


XXIII 
XXIV 
XXV 


CONTENTS 


OVERNIGHT BY RAIL FROM CAIRO TO JE- 
RUSALEM, WuicH Took Firteen Days 
BY CAMEL 


Tue PRIMITIVE NATIVE AND THE TRIALS 
OF WELFARE WoRK 


PALESTINE LEADING OTHER COUNTRIES IN 
THE ELIMINATION OF ORPHAN ASYLUMS 


THe Lasor SITUATION Ve) ae eta ie 


BEAUTY-PARLORS AND CABARETS BY THE 
Op. WALLS-OF JERUSALEM...) ee 


I Go To JERICHO, AND AH Meg, It Is a 
Hot. PLace 


Ben YEHUDA, WHo SPENT Forty YEARS 
to Revive A Drap LANGUAGE 


WHERE Hort Btooms ETERNAL... 


THE CRADLE OF CULTURE ROCKED ANEW 
IN THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY 


WEIZMANN SEES BUT ONE GOAL FOR THE 
J EW—PALESTINE 


THe Man Wuo Forever FEELS THE 
Putse-Beat or HuMANITY 1 ae 


RoTHSCHILD AND THE PROPHECY. . . 
ENGLAND'S JOB SA SR ETS Sa 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE OF PALES- 
TINE e e . J J ee . °° e . 


APPENDIX A ee ghey ZEN Ee ae 
APPENDIX B 
APPENDIX C fo a a a 


PAGE 


107 


115 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


A PATRIARCH OF PALESTINE ... . . .. Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 


PANORAMA OF JERUSALEM . 228° s > 3S. 
COTIMBIEACTOR VFA TA ELAIRA) oo sth el collins cht RRL co eu een eS 


THE Oxtp CarAvAn BeInG REPLACED BY AUTOMOBILE AND 


Bus ee Une Men SI TEe aaa Ses Bg UME Re kha ie 
Text Aviv, THE Most Movern City oF PALESTINE. . . 32 
Maxine MarsH-Lanp INTO TILLABLE SOIL. . . . . 36 
SIREET SCENE UNSIDE( JAFFA) GATE, 44005 Od e445 
A Re.Licious SETTLER eS RE Se Se ee FA REY we te 8 
rer BRIN CBr OGACCO Ri fs a nee inc) Pe acca teeth Dele TA vine WOE) 
Tree NURSERIES A GROWING INDUSTRY FOR WoMEN . . 76 
New Tyre oF APARTMENT House IN PALESTINE. . . 81 


A Group oF Our Finest HapassAH INFANT WELFARE . 117 


Girts TAUGHT TO SEW AT BALFOURIA ORPHANAGE . . 124 
PME OEGIN NING OF Av COLONVil) 250k) a his) hohe co) oto 238 
eer CIENT? VV AILING | WALL.) buted palutelh of) couch tan LAO 
TypicaL NEw SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE . . . . . 160 


af 


i oe 





PALESTINE AWAKE 





$n rs 


PALESTINE AWAKE 


THE REBIRTH OF A NATION 
CHAPTER I 


PALESTINE, THE CENTURY 'S GREAT EXPERIMENT 


©). gondola glided away from the stately 


old palace that once was the rendezvous 
of princes and now a famous hostelry. 

The morning sun shone bright, and the spar- 
kling water seemed to reflect the high spirits of 
the stalwart gondolier as he deftly guided us 
through the watery highways until we reached 
the boat for Triest. 

As I took my last lingering look on Venice, 
the city of lovers and romance, of doers and 
dreamers, I turned to scan my fellow-passengers, 
and found already—a different order. Different 
they were from those about the doges’ old palace 
in St. Mark’s square that I had just left—a 

3 


4 PALESTINE AWAKE 


cosmopolitan crowd. There appeared a dusky 
individual wearing a red fez, doubtless bound 
for Cairo, and a white-turbaned Easterner, a 
high priest, different, different indeed from the 
tourist and readily recognized visitor of Europe, 
and they were bound for a different world—a 
different people, a different life. Going home 
they were, the oldest home of all people—the 
people of the Book. The contrast was almost 
startling. 

What tales were they carrying back to old 
Egypt and Palestine and Jerusalem—stories of 
what they had seen and heard of the New World! 
To them new indeed—to us very old. 

And once transferred to the ship at Triest 
bound for Alexandria, there was no escaping the 
feeling that something unlike anything we had 
ever seen awaited us. My first walk around 
the deck in the now late afternoon led me to 
look below at the third-class passengers. It was 
as though a fairy godmother had waved a wand 
and put them all to sleep e’en before the daylight 
had faded. And on the bare hard floor, with 
a coat or a bit of wearing-apparel under each head 


WaIvsayal JO VNVUONVd 














THE GREAT EXPERIMENT 5 


—fast asleep. And the majority of them young 
people. What weariness must have been theirs 
to slumber so soundly, oblivious of everything— 
the screaming birds around the ship, the handling 
of cargo, the call of the midshipman! 

But in the morning I learned. Thousands and 
thousands of miles they had traveled—from 
Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Bavaria—everywhere, 
it seemed. And whither bound, I asked. To 
Palestine, the New Jerusalem—to them not an 
old world but a new one—one they were going 
to build. 

And as I talked with them I marveled at this 
idealism of the twentieth century; an idealism, 
doubtless, latent through the centuries, waiting 
for the call to come. Conditions all over the 
world hastened it—the economic situation in 
Europe, the industrial slumps since the war, per- 
secution in some instances—in truth, all of the 
war’s aftermath contributed to this. 

The intensity, the fervor of these young people 
cannot be brushed aside or treated lightly. It is 
the real foundation upon which the revival of the 
country is based. As one voice they said: “We 


6 PALESTINE AWAKE 


are going to work. We know it will be hard, 
but it matters not. We are going to make way 
for those to follow. It is our heritage.” And 
the same note is sounded in cities and colonies 
throughout Palestine after they have been there 
for a few years. 

The pioneer spirit is what is making these 
‘young people, many of them professionals in their 
former homes—doctors, lawyers, engineers, and 
members of the other learned occupations— 
willing to break stone or do any other menial 
work. They all come to Palestine with one 
prime purpose. They have picked up stakes, an- 
ticipating hardships, but with a sublime spirit of 
making the best and the most of it. 

The tables seem to have turned. Instead of 
the middle-aged going forth as pioneers, leading 
their young, to make a new land with new con- 
ditions, the young people between the ages of 
eighteen and twenty-five are now creating the 
foundation upon which the New Palestine is to 
be built. 

And for the aged the same spirit prevails. 
Old men, strict in their Jewish religious ortho- 


THE GREAT EXPERIMENT 7 


doxy, who have all their lives longed to touch 
the ancient soil, come here presumably to live 
and die—mainly to die. But they acquire a new 
youth, because the young blood that has come 
into the country, the haluzim (which means 
pioneers), are making life worth living. 

The prayer of the Jew they say, which used 
to be “Next Year Jerusalem,” is being changed 
to “To-morrow Jerusalem.” They have but one 
mutual thought, a National Home. 

But so much on the side of Zionism. 

What of the country itself, the actual state 
of affairs that exists? 

Perhaps the greatest experiment of this century 
—and it may have already passed that stage— 
is now being conducted in Palestine, and is mak- 
ing new history in the Land of the Bible. 

After a study of existing conditions in Jerusa- 
lem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and all the other large 
centers, as well as the agricultural territories, and 
after discussing with the leading Arabs, Jews, 
and Christians the activities and the point of view 
of each, no one can deny that a great change is 
being wrought in this part of the Near East—a 


8 PALESTINE AWAKE 


change so rapid and seemingly so certain that 
it will focus the keen interest of the entire world 
in the next few years. 

For example, this is written in Haifa, on Mount 
Carmel, which has been at a standstill for cen- 
turies and whose life has moved at a snail’s pace. 
To-day ten thousand Jews around the slope of 
this famous biblical center are cutting through 
the mountains and developing the sea-front and 
making way for the industrial enterprises that are 
to come. At the close of the war there were 
three thousand Jewish inhabitants. To-day 
there are thirteen thousand. 

Ten minutes from this two-year-old modern 
hotel (the Herzlia, named for the founder of 
Zionism )—ten minutes from here, a two-million 
dollar cement factory, backed by Americans, is 
running at a feverish speed. A two-million-dollar 
electric plant, as up-to-date as any in New York, 
has replaced the candle-light of the ages; and 
through the narrow streets of ancient days, paved 
with cobblestones and arched overhead, the gleam 
of the electric light is speaking of progress to the 


VSIVH LV AYOLOVA TIO 








THE GREAT EXPERIMENT 9 


native who is trimming his lamp-wick for the 
last time. 

This very day five hundred Rumanian Jews 
landed at the port of Haifa, and they will make 
their future home here. Last month the im- 
migration to Palestine numbered thirty-nine hun- 
dred souls, and statistical records show that every 
year the population of settlers is doubling. 

Two hours’ ride from here is the city of Tel 
Aviv, which might well be termed the Miami of 
Palestine. Almost overnight a population from 
almost nothing has sprung up to forty thousand, 
and land values have increased, not unlike 
Florida, over 1000 per cent in some instances, 

In Jerusalem the flowing-robed native looks 
askance at the new buses carrying loads of work- 
men; at the motor-trucks replacing his donkey 
and camel—the only means of burden-bearing 
and transportation for thousands of years. He 
looks with awe and wonder at the pulley, the 
crane, and the hydraulic lift. Where formerly 
he carried each stone on his back to the topmost 
part of the building he was erecting, he sur- 


10 PALESTINE AWAKE 


prisedly sees man-power replaced on all sides by 
machinery. 

On the fields, ditches are being dug to reclaim 
swamp lands, and buildings are erected almost 
before your eyes. Colonies that were barren 
land six months ago are now flourishing small 
centers of life and activity. A technical insti- 
tute was opened here last week where engineering 
and kindred subjects will be the curriculum. 

And how is this possible—this steaming-up 
process of human endeavor? Possibly only be- 
cause the newest methods are fast making their 
way into these oldest places. The foremost and 
best farm implements are employed in the ag- 
ricultural settlements. Mechanical labor-saving 
devices brought from America and other pro- 
gressive countries on all sides are replacing the 
primitive laborious work of the past. 

Since the war, industries have sprung up 
quickly. Among these may be mentioned a choc- 
olate factory; the manufacture of carpets; a 
silicate company making bricks; a $1,125,000 
structural company making building materials; a 
$1,250,000 refining company producing olive-oil 


THE GREAT EXPERIMENT 11 


and other oils; a furniture corporation which is 
transforming the Palestine woods into modern 
furniture; a tile factory which makes floor-tiling 
used in nearly all homes and which is sold as 
cheaply as wood. A motor concern, although in 
existence for a number of years, was virtually 
revived in a day and is now manufacturing 
pumps, presses, mills, and machinery of every 
kind. The candy industry is not without rep- 
resentation. Ice and mineral water form a thriv- 
ing industry. There is a silk factory, a salt fac- 
tory, a flour plant, a tannery, an electric battery 
manufacturing concern—more than one hundred 
and fifty different industries with the latest type 
of machinery since the war. 

The postal and telegraphic service before 1914 
was administered from Constantinople, and there 
were no telephones. To-day, notwithstanding 
unfavorable conditions and financial restrictions, 
post-offices have been established in a number of 
towns, as well as telephonic and telegraphic 
facilities. 

Most of the telephone and telegraph routes 
have been entirely reconstructed, and the tel- 


12 PALESTINE AWAKE 


ephone service now has close to two thousand 
subscribers and is in a very flourishing condition. 

The mail service has improved at least one hun- 
dred per cent. For instance, in Jerusalem, Jaffa, 
and Tel Aviv there are no less than three mails 
daily, where formerly the service was about one 
a week. 

Continuous day-and-night telegraph service 
has been established in Jerusalem within the last 
two years. The well equipped traveling post- 
office on the trains to and from Egypt has proved 
a strong link between Palestine and other 
countries. 


6e¢ 


CHAPTER II 


THE MAYOR OF JERUSALEM SEES THE DAWN OF 


A NEW DAY IN THE HOLY LAND 


H me, to change places with the mayor 

of New York for a year or two!” was 
my greeting from the mayor of Jerusalem, 
Ragheb El] Nashashibi. 

“T would like to know how it feels to have 
enough money to run a city. Your streets must 
truly be paved with gold if you have the budgets 
I hear about. It must be wonderful to be in the 
New York City Hall, and have them hand you 
millions of dollars to pave streets and build roads 
and open parks and subways. 

“But, alas, Jerusalem—Jerusalem the Golden 
—is far from true to its name, from the civic 
point of view.” 

All this the Arab mayor held forth with serious 


mien. Beside him was the vice-mayor, and they 
13 


14 PALESTINE AWAKE 


were telling me what they hoped in the way of 
a future city—and they have vision. 

The room in which we were seated is about 
ten by fifteen feet in size. Outside, however, 
there were a number of Arab lackeys to lend 
dignity to the office. All of them made apologies 
to me for the old -stairs and the like, eager to 
inform me that the City Hall is being rebuilt. 

“It is a big job I have,” said his Honor. “I 
would like to see the mayor of New York try 
to run Jerusalem on a budget of three hundred 
and twenty-five thousand dollars a year. The 
people here clamor for just as many improve- 
ments as the people do in your city. It is a new 
world we are living in—in this oldest city of 
them all. 

“What with the radio and the telegraph and 
quick transportation, the New World has been 
brought to our doors, and we are no longer satis- 
fied with the old order. The younger genera- 
tion is demanding a New Jerusalem, and we are 
getting it faster than all the ancient patriarchs 
buried here ever dreamed. When you stop to 
think that before the war we had an annual ap- 


THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY 15 


propriation of approximately a hundred and 
twenty-five thousand dollars, which probably 
does n’t cover one of ‘your smallest departments in 
New York, you can readily see that we have 
gone a considerable distance to bring our revenue 
up to the present figure. 

“We have built twenty-four new roads in the 
five years of my régime—more than had been 
built in a century before that. We have widened 
and repaired many of the old roads. They were 
so narrow two cars could not pass. You see, 
they were not built for automobiles, only for cara- 
vans. We are getting electricity, and soon the 
whole city will be electrified. 

“All we need is money, and that is very hard 
toget. People here are still very poor. The rev- 
enue from the mass of the citizens has not in- 
creased in a generation because of the poverty 
that obtains here. But with the new state of af- 
fairs, with new elements coming in—the Jewish 
settlers, the tourists—the situation is entirely dif- 
ferent. 

“One of our biggest problems,” said the mayor, 
“is that of water. The people have been very 


16 PALESTINE AWAKE 


patient. Imagine if you can millions of people 
living in New York depending entirely on rain- 
water. Well, that is our situation. And this 
year there has been a drouth. The rainfall was 
below normal, and considerable hardship has re- 
sulted. We have some engineers working on the 
problem, and we are hoping to harness the Jordan 
and bring water to Jerusalem. 

“Can you picture mothers and children every 
day carrying their water from central places in 
tin cans on their heads or on their shoulders? 
And this water must do for drinking and cooking; 
very little for bathing, I am afraid.”” He smiled 
sadly. ‘The water has to be purchased by the 
people and is a great burden on them. 

“Sanitation, therefore, must necessarily be of 
low standard, but we have hopes. Ah, yes, we 
have great hopes. Nothing can stop Jerusalem 
from being one of the greatest cities of the world 
with all the latest improvements and devices. 
Only recently we developed a cosmopolitan police 
department. Traffic rules were needed, and I 
believe if a New York policeman came to Jerusa- 
lem he would find on every important corner an 


me a! 


. aes 


—-. 


Te et! 


: 4 : ey at 


: os pres a eee a ; , at ihe \ : 


- 
i, 


ain a ares 
ies : Ws | ee} xe) A oe, . a “ t 


. | 
i 


7] 






Sad GNV AZTIIGONOLOV Ad GHOV Idea ONIAX NVAVUVO CIO AHL 








THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY 17 


officer just as busy as the traffic man on Broad- 
way. 

“TI venture to say that if he tried to take our 
policeman’s place he would find it a bit discon- 
certing, what with the camels and donkeys and 
automobiles and buses all trying to go in dif- 
ferent directions at the same time. Besides, he 
would have to know how to give orders in three 
languages—Arabic, Hebrew, and English, the 
official tongues. Oh, yes, the New York cop has 
nothing on his brother in Jerusalem. 

“In other ways as well, the New Jerusalem is 
being developed along the most modern lines. 
New homes are being erected outside of the Old 
City and are planned with all the latest improve- 
ments. We hope very soon to have sanitary 
laws of the same order as your own. But we 
must be patient until some of these municipal 
improvements are completed. 

“Before the war we had seven officials to run 
the city. Now we have three hundred. Are we 
not getting like New York?’ he asked smilingly. 
“But there is not much chance for graft here’’; he 
winked knowingly, “not with only three hundred 


18 PALESTINE AWAKE 


and twenty-five thousand dollars in the treas- 
ury. 

“What do you think the mayor of New York 
would do if he had to listen to all the languages 
in the world and had all religions to satisfy? 
That is our job here. Jerusalem with its hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants has every tongue and 
every creed. Not only this, but you start an im- 
provement somewhere and you find you are en- 
croaching on some religious interest that must be 
ironed out and settled and satisfied before you 
can do anything further. 

“But we are coming, coming fast. And you 
can go back to New York and tell them so. 
They will be glad to come here from Fifth Avenue, 
Riverside Drive, and Broadway to view the oldest 
and best city in the world. 

“Where heretofore the tourist has stopped in 
Egypt because of the desert roads and railroads 
and the hardships he had to encounter before 
entering Palestine, to-day it is quite different. 
He can get here overnight with very little dis- 
comfort. An automobile road from Cairo is now 
being built, with a bridge projected across the 


THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY 19 


Suez Canal, which will bring thousands of 
tourists. 

“And the more of them come, the better. 
American money will go a long way toward pre- 
serving the holy places and making Jerusalem a 
place to come for a sojourn. 

“Aside from the valuable historic spots, the 
climate here is better than anywhere else in the 
world. In the spring the Judean hills are filled 
with flowers, and the place is a garden-spot,”’ he 
proclaimed with pride. “Our big task is to pre- 
serve all the holy places intact, to defend them 
from encroachments, and at the same time pro- 
duce a modern city—fine hotels, parks, play- 
grounds, just as any other great center of the 
world. What city deserves it more than this 
city that harbors the history of all the world?’ 

I quite agreed with his outlook. 

I went home with the mayor and had tea with 
him and his pretty wife. He lives outside the 
ancient section, and from his upper porch I could 
look out over the whole city of Jerusalem, old and 
new. And the little woman complained to me 
how day and night her husband worked even 


20 PALESTINE AWAKE 


harder than the mayor of New York; for the 
mayor of the metropolis could delegate much of 
his job to his department heads, but as yet the 
mayor of Jerusalem is the department head and 
the whole works. 

As we looked over the glorious landscape of 
temple towers, the-closed golden gate which the 
Messiah is ‘yet to open, the old synagogues, the 
Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the circular domes, 
the great walls, the winding ways, he waved his 
hand over it all, crying: “Is it not the greatest 
city in the world? The whole universe will 
recognize it as such!” 

But to return to civics. “Our avenues are to 
be wider,” he explained. “We are constantly 
opening up new streets, although we hope to re- 
tain the charm of the old ones. We now can 
boast of a street-cleaning department and a new 
type of water-sprinkler; we are very proud of 
this. We are numbering our houses, and have 
already instituted a city planning commission. 
But you will have to ask the governor about all of 
this, for I cannot talk politics. That is the 
governor’s job.” 


THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY ey 


And they have politics in Jerusalem, just as 
intricate, just as forceful, just as controversial, 
and just as bad in spots, as I found out, as we 
have in our little old New York. But he was 
willing to talk about the Jewish entry into 
Palestine. 

“I can see no reason why the Jews and the 
Arabs cannot work together in this great country. 
There is room for all, and up to the present time 
there have been no serious quarrels. At the be- 
ginning, what little dissension arose has been 
smoothed out, and I believe it is the desire at 
least of the younger and vigorous and open- 
minded group of Arabs to do everything they can 
to work amicably with the Jews. 

“We must say that the Jews have brought con- 
siderable progress, and as they are mainly spend- 
ing their own money in developing the country 
it would be wrong not to give them credit for 
such efforts in trying to make the future and 
better Palestine. 

“And our new post-office,’ he continued. 
“We are very proud of that. We have heavy 
incoming and outgoing mails. We don’t want to 


22 PALESTINE AWAKE 


stand still. Watch us. We are going to profit 
by your wisdom. You have had to go through 
growing-pains and through the elimination proc- 
ess. We will take advantage of it. 

“No unsightly bill-board signs will we permit 
in Jerusalem; no street-cars with the miserable 
tracks that have outgrown their usefulness. And 
as to subways, who knows, we may develop the 
airplane for common use to fly overhead, instead 
of having transit underneath. We fly almost 
daily from here to Bagdad, Damascus, and other 
places. Palestine, with its great valleys and hills, 
lends itself beautifully to airplanes. 

“Through our city planning commission we 
have already passed one ordinance that aims 
to avoid unsightly buildings, haphazard archi- 
tecture. We mean to produce things in con- 
formity with that which is already so beautiful 
here—the ancient outlines and the artistic con- 
tour.” 

Yes, Mayor Nashashibi of Jerusalem wants to 
come to America to see the golden streets whence 
comes all the money. And as I left him, again 


THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY 23 


he repeated, “If only I could exchange places 
with the mayor of New York and get some of 
that money—ah, me, what wonders we could pro- 
duce here in Jerusalem.” 


CHAPTER III 


TEL AVIV, THE MIRACLE CITY OF THE 
EASTERN WORLD 


LL over Palestine Tel Aviv is on the tip 
A of every tongue the seeming wonder of the 
Eastern world. In its rapid growth and de- 
velopment it is likened by experts to Los Angeles, 
California or to Miami, Florida. These two 
American cities, however, began with speculation 
and get-rich-quick projects. The Tel Aviv de* 
velopment had its inception from the idealistic 
aspiration of the Jew for a National Home, which 
has been the basis of all the present development 
of Palestine. 

Unique indeed is the history of the first com- 
pletely Jewish municipality, numbering forty 
thousand souls, and its story was told me by its 
mayor, Meier Dizengoff, with whom I discussed 
the past, present, and future of his city. He has 


been mayor since the beginning of the city, and is 
24 


THE MIRACLE CITY OF THE EAST 25 


regularly elected just like any of our mayors: a 
dominant figure, full of enthusiasm, eager to adopt 
the progressive methods of the New World. 

Tel Aviv truly resembles a subdivision of 
Miami, Florida. Situated on the Mediterranean, 
it has the advantage of sea-frontage; its houses 
are built strong, mainly of stone, and the atmos- 
phere is that of a seething center of business, in- 
dustry, and social activity. It is perhaps the 
most noteworthy example of what new-world 
methods can accomplish. The mayor points 
proudly to statistics which demonstrate what 
human endeavor has entered into this project. 

Tel Aviv only became a municipality in 1921. 
Until then it was a small suburb of Jaffa and 
comprised thirty acres. Its existence dates from 
1909, and up to the time of the war it had spread 
over about 275 acres. With the outbreak of hos- 
tilities all effort ceased; during the conflict there 
were only five persons in Tel Aviv, and they were 
the watchmen. 

But soon after the Armistice, active opera- 
tions were begun by the mayor and his lieutenants, 
so that in 1921, when a government grant for the 


26 PALESTINE AWAKE 


establishment of a municipality was made to 
Tel Aviv by the British government, the manda- 
tory over Palestine, it had an extent of 400 acres. 
By 1924 it more than doubled, while to-day the 
area of the city is 1250 acres. The population 
in 1920 was 2084; to-day it is approximately 
40,000. 

The mayor, whose genial personality has won 
for him friends all over Palestine, in giving me 
these figures, smiled, saying: “During the last 
four years when anybody asked me the population 
of the city, I would answer: ‘This morning the 
population of Tel Aviv is so many thousand,’ 
because by the afternoon or the next morning 
there would be a hundred or two more.” 

In 1920 there were 200 houses in Tel Aviv with 
1563 rooms. To-day there are 2700 houses 
with 15,000 rooms. ‘The value of these houses 
is estimated at eighteen million dollars, and the 
vacant property is placed at two and a half 
millions. ‘There is no other place in Palestine 
that has such sanitary conditions in private houses 
as obtain here. 


In this progressive municipality the mayor 


THE MIRACLE CITY OF THE EAST 27 


makes it his business to ascertain not only the 
number of people but also the productive pop- 
ulation. He told me that according to the last 
count made, when there were 30,000 inhabitants, 
11,280, or 37.6 per cent, were breadwinners, 
which is regarded as a very high average. 

His record is very complete in regard to the 
enterprises in which the population is engaged. 
They are as follows: 


Per Cent 
RICHES FORTNOUSCE oer Ui rots cre wee ice She 1.5 
Hotel and restaurant business .............. 17 
MESSRS RIN OME Mp Tage Ly ap ee ean CM Seid eae 2.0 
TEVA 4s DOMED a Pe ee OL) MORAN ma Se 3.2 
Transportation operators, such as drivers and 

RRIURECULS Meee it cialis aur ole As eee Getie ta: shu y oh ety! 
Liberal professions, such as doctors and engi- 

“i isl Ag a ALO a bala OA RY re aaa 6.5 
ETON Cd, dp latal caleieieal ar PU AA Pay a De obvi 10.4 
REPEC SPAMS EO IS bere see Neyae a she sie spare arene es 11.0 
REOBULSd ea DOTd sta Shia dle isis alsin sane 28.4 
Bas ecu alOri:la se ts ano oh telses Hy aaa iene eet 31.6 


In the last line of this table les perhaps the 
element that has made most for the rapid strides 
of Tel Aviv. 


28 PALESTINE AWAKE 


The mayor went on to tell me of the school 
development. In 1921, there were only sixteen 
schools with 2700 pupils. To-day there are 
forty-nine schools with 7300 pupils. They are 
divided into kindergartens, public schools, the 
higher grades, musical and professional schools. 

The interesting feature to the Jews in this 
connection is the fact that religious schools only 
have 829 pupils out of 7300. The mayor 
pointed out that the religious element is not so 
great a factor in the development of the Holy 
Land as the idealistic effort for a National Home. 

And when the mayor came to the city budget, 
his broad smile betokened great happiness in the 
fact that the entire debt is more than equaled by 
the revenue. ‘Therefore,’ he said, “I have no 
troubles like the New York mayor in going be- 
yond the debt limit. In 1920 our budget was 
fifty thousand dollars; to-day it is approximately 
three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. 
Our municipal bonds must interest even your 
American investors,” he continued. 

The public property now owned by the munici- 
pality is made up of public parks and complete 


THE MIRACLE CITY OF THE EAST 29 


and well developed system of water-supply—three 
wells with electric and gasolene engines, two 
reservoirs, etc. Concrete walls have been built, 
and pavements and sidewalks. There is a munic- 
ipal library and a meteorological station. 

The police force was established in the summer 
of 1921. As I was leaving the city the police 
band had just given its first concert. There are 
seventy-five policemen, and Mr. Dizengoff de- 
clares that the city is most orderly; he challenges 
the record of any other city in the world. The 
maximum monthly number of violations of police 
regulations is twenty-four with a population of 
forty thousand. 

In 1922 Tel Aviv first obtained its own munic- 
ipal bench with the legal power of inflicting 
punishment. Criminal actions approximate ten 
a month, the maximum in the entire history of 
the city having been forty in a month. There 
have been only two homicides, with no convic- 
tion in either case. 

If it were possible to transport Tel Aviv on a 
magic carpet to a subdivision of Florida, the 


passer-by would not know the difference, except 


30 PALESTINE AWAKE 


that the signs on the stores and business houses 
have both the Jewish and the English writing. 

Tel Aviv, like the Florida sections, was founded 
on sand-dunes; sixty families settled there in one 
year to get away from the crowded quarters of 
Jaffa. 

Advertisements read not unlike those in Miami 
and its subdivisions. Land that cost fifty dol- 
lars an acre is now selling in some places for two 
thousand dollars, and all of the surrounding ter- 
ritory is being bought up for development pur- 
poses. The outlying suburbs were consolidated 
with Tel Aviv in 1923. 

The shops and show-windows are exactly what 
you would find in any bustling city of the United 
States. The moving-picture show, the cabaret 
and roof-garden, are joyfully in evidence. 

There is nothing old in Tel Aviv, and you can- 
not find there what you find in Jerusalem—old 
walls, old streets, and ancient landmarks. Only 
when you look up in the direction of Jaffa do you 
see any trace of former generations. 

The commercial center of the city is termed 
Merkaz Micchary. A considerable distance 


THE MIRACLE CITY OF THE EAST 31 


away are some thirty factories busy turning out 
building-materials, furniture, mineral waters, 
chocolate and confectionery, jam, cloth and shoes; 
there is an extensive tannery and a large silk mill. 
Last year there were three thousand employed on 
public utilities alone, paving roads, constructing 
water-works, and the like. 

One of the biggest developments in Palestine 
is in the field of electric power. The Jaffa Elec- 
tric Company (Rutenberg concession) operates at 
Tel Aviv and also at Haifa. It was established 
only two years ago. It has supplied the cities with 
electric light and power and has proved an ex- 
tremely valuable aid to manufacturing. A unique 
idea is the construction of a workshop built in Tel 
Aviv by this electric company, where small manu- 
facturers can secure power and so avoid the in- 
vestment of capital in building and motors. This 
will aid the industrial development of Tel Aviv, 
and will be a pioneer effort toward giving the 
small manufacturer the facilities for large opera- 
tions. 

Then there is the casino on the sea-shore at the 
end of Allenby Road, which makes you truly think 


32 PALESTINE AWAKE 


you are somewhere in Florida. The casino is 
the only thing of its kind in Palestine. A special 
bus service brings parties from the different towns 
to the sea-shore. It is fast developing into a 
resort place because of its climate and the sea. 

The Mayor is extremely proud that fifty tele- 
phones have been installed in private residences; 
for a private telephone is most unusual in any part 
of Palestine. 

It is remarkable about this community that the 
population is made up of Jews from every part 
in the world; and although many, many lan- 
guages are spoken, the one so-called legal language 
is pure Hebrew. ‘This is due to the efforts of 
one man, who insisted that the dead Hebrew 
language be revived. He it was who created the 
Hebrew dictionary. His name was Eliezer Ben 
Yehudah—but that is another story. 

The tourist of the future will come to Tel Aviv 
and be amazed at this new-world city in a very old- 
world region. In the words of Elwood Mead, 
professor of rural institutions in the University of 
California, who went over the same territory, “The 
contrast between the old Arab city of Jaffa, with 


ANILSAITVd AO ALIO NYAGOW LSOW AHL ‘AIAV TAL 








THE MIRACLE CITY OF THE EAST 33 


its narrow, crooked streets and lack of sanitation, 
and the city of Tel Aviv, with its broad, paved, 
electric lighted streets, is the contrast between 
the tenth and the twentieth centuries.” 


CHAPTER IV 


THE IDEALIST AND THE DREAMER BACKED BY 
PRACTICAL PIONEERS 


HILE the idealism of the young Jews 
\ \) who come from everywhere to settle in 
Palestine is one of the chief points of interest in 
the development of Palestine; while the social 
welfare work that is being done by various Ameri- 
can organizations inspires admiration because of 
the crude human material that abounds in this 
very old country, where sanitation and standards 
of living have been practically unknown; while 
the picturesqueness of the country impresses all 
visitors; yet there is one center around which 
everything else revolves, and that is the business 
of acquiring land and developing it. 

For this purpose the American Zion Common- 
wealth has been established. Just how much land 
can or should be obtained may be readily deduced. 

34 


IDEALIST AND DREAMER 35 


The total area of Palestine is 6,750,000 acres. 
The arable land comprises approximately 3,125,- 
000 acres. Of this, 2,250,000 acres are owned 
by the Arabs; and but one third, or 750,000 acres, 
is not cultivated, aside from hills or slopes to be 
reclaimed. ‘That is to say, 750,000 acres of cul- 
tivable land have been allowed for centuries to 
remain in medieval decay. 

Much of this land is held for speculation be- 
cause of the new demand for it from the Jews. At 
present about 212,500 acres are owned and cul- 
tivated by Jews. There are also several thousand 
acres of uncultivated and unowned land which 
the government controls. It is believed that this 
will be made available for the Jews in accordance 
with a provision of the mandate. 

To acquire a large portion of this fertile land 
has been the particular work of the American Zion 
Commonwealth. Like the Jewish National Fund 
and the Keren Hayesod, the Commonwealth has 
for its object the redemption of the soil of Pales- 
tine and its colonization by the Jewish population. 

The Commonwealth has no individual stock- 
holders. The Zionist Organization of America 


36 PALESTINE AWAKE 


has complete control and supervision. It appoints 
the trustees. While the Commonwealth started 
out as individuals organized on a codperative plan, 
it is to-day a public enterprise. There are thirteen 
directors, among them Judge Bernard A. Rosen- 
blatt, S. J. Weinstein, J. Adlerblum, Isaac Meis- 
ter, William Topkiss, Louis J. Lippman, Charles 
Passman—all from New York. 

Charles Passman is the vice-president and the 
general manager. Since he is an engineer as well 
as a land expert, his work has proved of incalcula- 
ble value. Much of the new colony development 
is due to his enterprise. He is spoken of as “‘the 
quiet but busiest man in Palestine.” 

Judge Rosenblatt, the founder of the Common- 
wealth, instituted the first sale of Jewish land 
bonds in America. Most of the Jewish people 
who had made investments heretofore had done 
so entirely out of sentiment. They felt the idea 
was not a practical one and should not be en- 
couraged. 

The judge made a tour of the States but 
was at first unsuccessful: the people would 
not subscribe to his bond issue. As one man in 











MAKING MARSH-LAND INTO TILLABLE SOIL 





IDEALIST AND DREAMER 37 


New Orleans put it: “You have convinced me 
thoroughly that this is a sound investment, but 
why do you have to come all the way here to 
sell the bonds? Surely the people of New York 
should have oversubscribed ‘the issue by now.” 
And so Judge Rosenblatt went back to New 
York and made virtually a house-to-house can- 
vass. He finally interested Colonel Herbert H. 
Lehman. By this time the judge had about five 
hundred subscriptions. Colonel Lehman felt 
that this was an accomplishment—getting five 
hundred clients was building up a business—and 
he bought a large number of the bonds personally. 
The bond issue was completed. To-day the 
bonds are quoted at par. Private investors and 
banks, who at first were skeptical about purchas- 
ing them, are to-day awaiting another issue. The 
investment in them has proved to be a very good 
one. Dividends have been paid semiannually 
(four in number) at the the rate of 6% per cent, 
through the Title Guarantee and Trust Company. 
It is this confidence of the American Jews in 
the American Zion Commonwealth, the feeling 
that their investments will bring a fair return, that 


38 PALESTINE AWAKE 


will help firmly to establish and solidify the de- 
velopment of Palestine; such is the belief of this 
organization. 

The Palestine Securities Corporation was 
formed at the time of the launching of the Tel 
Aviv bond issue. It is a subsidiary of the Com- 
monwealth, and it too is under the supervision of 
the Zionist Organization of America. It has for 
its object the raising of sufficient funds through 
bonds, mortgages, and other securities to enable 
the settlers in the various Palestine colonies to 
secure loans for the completion of their homes, 
barns, factories, and the like. 

At the recent Zionist Congress held in Vienna 
the Securities Corporation reported that they are 
now arranging a mortgage loan with one of the 
Palestinian banks, and it is to be put on sale in 
America very shortly. 

At the present time the Palestinian Securities, 
Inc., is engaged in floating two million dollars’ 
worth of mortgage bonds of the General Mort- 
gage Bank of Palestine, and the money is to be 
used for building operations in the principal 


Jewish towns of Palestine. 


IDEALIST AND DREAMER ad: 


Another subsidiary company recently organized 
is the Palestine Hotels, Ltd., which has for its 
object the building of large hotels in the principal 
towns of Palestine. It is now building the first 
large modern hotel in Jerusalem, which will con- 
tain about two hundred rooms and will be mod- 
ernly equipped. When these hotel facilities are 
completed in Palestine, it is expected that tour- 
ists will visit the country by thousands. 

As a rule, when the Jewish tourist visits Pales- 
tine he not only spends a few dollars, but very 
often he is attracted to make investments; these 
are steadily increasing. 

The Commonwealth is fostering the Municipal 
League of Erez-Israel. Its main object is to 
give to the old colonies the sinews of progress. 
Application has already been made to combine 
all the colonies for the purpose of obtaining 
mortgages and loans. 

The Commonwealth endeavors to interest the 
Jew in investing his money on a purely business 
basis. Therefore all the land acquired by the 
organization becomes the property of the indi- 
viduals who make the investments. 


40 PALESTINE AWAKE 


During the last three years the Commonwealth 
has purchased in Palestine fifty thousand acres 
of land. Most of this land was previously 
owned by Arabs who did not live in Palestine 
but had acquired these vast stretches of land dur- 
ing the Turkish régime and had left them un- 
cultivated. 

The method of operation is to purchase a 
stretch of land, develop it—that is, install modern 
water systems, sewerage, roads, and so on—and 
then sell it to individuals who desire to settle 
in Palestine or who merely want to acquire the 
land for investment. The Commonwealth helps 
permanent settlers to build their houses and 
assists them in other ways. 

The first work done in Palestine by the Com- 
monwealth was the building of the Colony Bal- 
fouria, named in honor of Lord Balfour. When 
Lord Balfour visited it on his recent visit to dedi- 
cate the Hebrew University he cried for joy. 

Balfouria is situated in the Emek Israel Valley 
and comprises about three thousand acres of land. 


This area was uncultivated for many centuries 


IDEALIST AND DREAMER 41 


and contained a great swamp which bred malaria 
in its neighborhood. The swamp has now been 
drained and the water used for irrigation. 

But more about Balfouria later. 


CHAPTER V 


THE GOVERNOR OF PALESTINE PAVES THE WAY 
FOR TOWN PLANNING AND PRESERVATION OF 
HOLY PLACES 


«WF you want to see what the Jews are accom- 
I plishing in Palestine, just see the first 
industrial exhibit at Tel Aviv. It is amazing!” 

This was the answer to the first question I put to 

Sir Ronald Storrs, the Christian governor of 

Jerusalem, Jaffa, and the southern district of 

Palestine, when I discussed with him at length 

the civic, political, and humanitarian activities 

there. 

For seven years Sir Ronald, as governor, has 
been closely associated with every move made in 
the advancement of the country. ‘““The orange 
figures alone are startling,” he continued. ‘From 
the Tel Aviv and Jaffa sections only, there were 
transported last season over two million boxes, 


each box containing one hundred and fifty 
42 


TOWN PLANNING 43 


oranges, and this is just the beginning of the 
industry. 

“It is a good example of the way Jew and Arab 
work together in business, and it presents an 
object-lesson. They have chosen a common 
emblem for their industrial exhibit, and if any 
one has any doubt of the development of Pales- 
tine, especially the Tel Aviv region, which the 
Jews have created, he needs only take a look at 
this exposition. 

“Not only does it give a vivid picture of un- 
precedented accomplishment, but it presents a 
future of inestimable achievement.” ‘The gover- 
nor waxed warm on this subject, but as the story 
of industries and Tel Aviv is covered elsewhere 
I urged him to discuss some of the important 
developments of Palestine. 

Town planning for Jerusalem—this is the new 
and gigantic job that Governor Storrs has set 
himself to do. “The whole world should know 
the problem we have before us in preserving the 
old Jerusalem and developing the new—a task 
that I believe no other country has ever had,”’ he 
stated. 


44 PALESTINE AWAKE 


“Fancy what a deplorable thing it 1s,” said Sir 
Ronald, ‘‘to see a street-car track to the Mount 
of Olives, or within the little town of Bethlehem, 
or in the Garden of Gethsemane; what it would 
mean to be confronted with buffets and refresh- 
ment-stands around the holy places. These are 
only a few of the encroachments that modern 
civilization is presenting to us day after day.” 

And so insistent have been these disfiguring 
commercial enterprises that Sir Ronald was forced 
to set up a private organization, the Pro- 
Jerusalem Society, to deal with the preservation 
of the historic places and the restoration of the 
landmarks as well as the development of the Holy 
City. The governor is the president of this so- 
ciety. It is strictly neutral in policies, the em- 
blem being a combination of the dominant sym- 
bols of the Arabic, Jewish, and Christian nations, 
and the society is fundamentally dedicated to the 
conservation of the Holy City. 

“Rapid strides have been made,” said Sir 
Ronald, “‘under the most difficult conditions, and 
with very little money. We are trying to lay 
out the modern city on a dignified plan and to 





iv 


Ah he 


q cur .’ 
nape 
‘y , 


yO? j 
“9 
. 
ioe iy 
4. ‘ 
+ 
aw 
5 
' ~ 
re ‘i> 
1 
os 
» int 
b ' 
a 
. 
nm 
i. 
i : 
< . 
{fe .* 
sy 
be | 
} 
@ 
: 1 i 
A. 
i r 
» 
x 
t* t 
t ' 
4 
ete, i 
T 2 4 
; f 
‘ 
s we i 
. 06 
‘ 
' 
t . 


eet L qth 








STREET SCENE INSIDE JAFFA GATE 


TOWN PLANNING 45 


protect the ancient part from industrial desecra- 
tion. The Civil Administration, headed by the 
high commissioner, has recognized this work and 
given the society a charter and has agreed to con- 
tribute dollar for dollar the amount the society 
draws from all over the world. Thus far only 
thirty thousand dollars has been subscribed. The 
society is suffering for want of funds. 

“Stricter measures are being enforced for the 
conservation of the traditional building style of 
Jerusalem, offensive and unsuitable materials 
being prohibited or removed, and an effective 
control of new buildings and town planning has 
been instituted,’ the governor informed me. 

The size of the shop-signs, which had become of 
recent years a serious disfigurement to the city, 
has been regulated by municipal by-laws, under 
which the posting of bills, placards, and advertise- 
ments is restricted to moderate notice-boards 
displayed in special localities. 

The majority of the streets have been named 
by a special committee representative of the three 
religions, and the names blazoned in the three 
official languages (Hebrew, Arabic, and English), 


46 PALESTINE AWAKE 


in colored and glazed rock tiles. For the first 
time in the history of the city the houses of 
Jerusalem are being numbered. A map is being 
published giving zones and street names. 

“It being clearly impossible for a governor, 
military or civil, to superintend, still less to carry 
out in detail the execution of this highly techni- 
cal program,” said the governor, “I appointed 
C. R. Ashbee, fellow of the Royal Institute of 
British Architects, to the post of civic adviser, 
which included that of secretary to the society. 
For nearly four years he has rendered loyal and 
excellent service to the Pro-Jerusalem Society. 
The weaving and the tile-making industries have 
been established, and the Rampart Walk around 
the walls has been cleared and restored. 

“A jubilee memorial to commemorate the 
thirty-third year of the auspicious reign of the 
late Sultan Abdul Hamid has been bodily re- 
moved from the north side of the Jaffa Gate. 
Special efforts have been made to improve the 
condition of the citadel. Many minor repairs 
have been executed on the walls, and repairs to 
the South Tower are actually in progress. De- | 


TOWN PLANNING 47 


signs have been prepared for a stone bridge at the 
entrance to the Citadel. 

“We have come to see, however, that our job 
is not merely a matter of archeology or the pro- 
tection of ancient buildings, landscape, streets, or 
sites. Many more things have to be considered. 
And much more so in Jerusalem perhaps than 
in any other city in the world. 

“Before all things, Jerusalem is a city in which 
idealists through succeeding generations have torn 
each other and their city to pieces; for the city 
has changed hands over forty times. It is per- 
haps because of this that it has its singular 
grandeur and romance and beauty; and every 
time you do anything to a piece of sod or a scrap 
of stone, some historic association arises. 

“Hence comes the question of venerated rights 
of the joint and conflicting ownerships of various 
religious bodies. Jerusalem has a considerable 
parasitic population of priests, missionaries, care- 
takers, monks, pious women, and the motley 
order that has a vested interest in maintaining 
the status quo. It is picturesque and conserva- 
tive, yet it presents considerable obstacles to the 


48 PALESTINE AWAKE 


Administration and to rational improvement, 
because governmental sanction alone is not sufh- 
cient but must in reality come from the great 
world outside. 

“The actual bit of stone or the rubbish-heap 
we want to clean up may, it is true, belong to 
some Greek, or- Moslem, or Jew; but the Ar- 
menian, the English Protestant, the Abyssinian, 
the American missionary, the Italian, the wakf 
in India, the Copt, the other fellow somewhere, 
they will have a word to say on the matter, and 
before we do anything we must wait to hear it. 

“And, finally, the enterprise of the Pro- 
Jerusalem Society and the administration has 
been necessarily modified by the lack of enough 
money with which to do anything. Although 
this cripples us in historical research, yet in many 
instances it has proved a protection against ill 
considered enterprise and vandalism. At least 
we have the one great power of prohibiting un- 
intelligent or destructive action. At least we 
can stop foolish or wanton things from being 
done. 

“But we have made some headway just the 


TOWN PLANNING 49 


same. Effective work has been done to the 
great Jaffa, Damascus, and Herod gates. As 
a result of the work of the Society, the Palestine 
Town Planning Commission has been created. 
The commission has established new town bound- 
aries, has zoned the city in general outline and 
has adopted a new body of by-laws and regula- 
tions that are to give practical effect to the law. 
It has laid out eight sections of the new city. 

“For the first time an accurate survey has been 
made. After long and careful study, roads have 
been placed in proper relation with beauty 
spots. Historic buildings have been linked up. 
We shall have to tear down and clear away all 
the ugly things and make the individual give 
way to the public interest. 

“It is impossible to get out of the hard rut of 
the old roads. All we can do is to widen them 
alittle. It is difficult, often impossible, to touch 
buildings that are held by religious bodies. We 
still do not have enough money or administrative 
machinery to keep historic buildings in proper 
repair, and many of the finest things still remain 
in private hands. 


50 PALESTINE AWAKE 


“The job after all is not merely to draw a city 
plan on paper. The real work is to shape it 
toward a more or less ideal end. 

“In arranging for our parks you can imagine 
how far we have advanced: when in 1921 we 
planted 1283 trees and had 332 failures; the fol- 
lowing year we had only thirty-eight failures out 
of 1903 trees. Two nurseries have been estab- 
lished, one at the Citadel Garden. Many beauti- 
ful parks are being planned in and out of the 
old city. 

‘As to our markets, they have progressed slowly 
only because of lack of funds. Perhaps there is 
nothing that needs development so badly as 
these. Various schemes for marketing improve- 
ments are before us. The most important is the 
one at the Damascus Gate. We hope to clean 
up all the unsightly shops and corrugated iron 
buildings that disfigure the gate, and also to 
accommodate the Bedouins and their camels that 
enter the city here in great numbers. 

“One of the most interesting jobs accomplished 
by the Town Planning Commission has been the 
naming of the streets, which had never been 


TOWN PLANNING 51 


done in Jerusalem. Already forty-six streets 
have been named in the old city and eighty in the 
new. In most cases the signs are painted in 
ceramics and set in the streets. The list is full 
of history, and poetry, and folk-lore. For ex- 
ample, in the old city, some of the streets are 
Honor Lane, Street of the Chain, Christian 
Street, Jew Street, Blacksmith’s Lane, Water- 
melon Alley, Stork Lane, Via Dolorosa, Dancing 
Dervish Street. In the new city there are such 
names as Allenby Square, Agrippa’s Way, Street 
of the Prophets, Omar’s Way. 

“The names have to be given in three official 
languages, and the three traditions, Christian, 
Moslem, and Jewish, so far as possible, have to be 
preserved. Not only that, their connotations in a 
language in which they had no precise meaning 
had often to be sought out. Here was scope not 
only for scholarship but acute political division, 
and the subcommittee had on several occasions to 
be steered past very dangerous rocks. 

“The Pro-Jerusalem Society has endeavored 
to promote the interests of weaving, ceramics, 
glass, painters, tile-makers, blacksmiths, cabinet- 


ix: PALESTINE AWAKE 


makers, upholsterers; and the high commissioner 
appointed a special commission to investigate the 
various crafts, including those mentioned, in rela- 
tion to agriculture. 

“The findings are of considerable interest. 
Some questions of the future Palestine have pre- 
sented themselves to the commission. Is the life 
to be agricultural or industrial? Can it be both? 
If not, to what extent is the former to be de- 
pendent upon Western industrialism? ‘The whole 
Zionist problem is involved in this, for it means 
the life of the Jewish colonies. Are they going 
to continue to be dependent on outside support? 
Will they develop mechanical power intelli- 
gently? Will they practice side crafts, as the 
Palestine peasant has done for thousands of years? 
Here are involved not only vital problems in 
the theory of civics, but the Zionist question itself, 
and the mandate of Palestine. 

“Among the most interesting developments in 
the modern construction work of Jerusalem are 
the plans and proposals for building upon which 
different Jewish groups are engaged; they have 
been working in codperation with the Town 


TOWN PLANNING 53 


Planning Commission. There are so far five 
such schemes, Antiochus, Talpioth, Janjirieh, 
Boneh Bayit, and Antimus Porah. They might 
be termed garden cities. 

“Each one of them has a definite plan. For 
example, at Talpioth there are eight hundred pri- 
vate plots with houses, hotel, baths, post-office, 
coéperative distributing store for food-stuffs, the- 
ater, academy, synagogue, hospital. All this 
planning and dreaming is symbolic of Zionist 
activities. 

“Another of the developments is Boneh Bayit, 
which means Garden City. This provides a 
school, public hall, synagogue, sports ground, 
playground, and a cooperative distributive store. 
Twenty-four per cent of the total area is devoted 
to roads, open spaces, green belt area, and public 
building. There are 148 separate lots. This 
will give you an idea of how carefully we are 
following the development of the new centers 
around the city. 

“Before long,’ concluded the governor, “the 
attention of the world will be directed to this 
part of the country. Outside, comparatively 


54 PALESTINE AWAKE 


little is known of what is actually going on here. 
Certainly anybody can foresee that sure and defi- 
nite change and progress are destined for the 


Holy Land.” 


CHAPTER VI 


THE ZEAL OF THE COLONIST FIRED WITH THE 


SPIRIT OF HIS ANCESTORS 


“9 HAVE what IJ want, and I do not want any 

more than I have.” This sums up the 
philosophy of the life of Lazar Jeffe, one of the 
pioneers of Palestine, whom J met at Nahalal, 
a flourishing Jewish colony. 

Although Jaffe and his family have been here 
for fourteen years, the colony is but four years 
old. A neighbor, formerly of the Ukraine, voiced 
practically the same sentiment, as she showed 
me about the four acres of vineyards, vegetables, 
and flowers. 

“Ah, yes, here we have real sholem [peace],” 
she said. ‘““We can work out our own salvation 
without being molested by hostile changing gov- 
ernments and revolutionists. Very soon we will 
have our little farm paid for—my husband, my 

55 


56 PALESTINE AWAKE 


child, and I. Life will be easier; and what more 
can one want?” 

And so you go from one little house to another, 
all of them temporary abodes. When the land 
has been tilled and more money has been made, 
permanent structures will be built to take their 
places. And the constant courageous spirit of the 
pioneer meets you at every door, willing to bear 
hardships, but happy in the doing. 

No one can possibly visit these colonies as I 
have and not be impressed with the fact that it is 
the spiritual life behind it all that is fast, very 
fast, putting each family on a footing that will 
eventually lead to Easy Street. 

One of the interesting features of these col- 
onies, especially the one at Nahalal, is the unique 
coéperative local government, which is made up 
of small committees to attend to various aspects 
of community interest. 

For instance, Jaffe, who explained the system, 
told me about the committee on sickness. When 
a man is taken ill and cannot continue his work, 
the committee calls on a group of workers to aid 
with his work until he is well again. And fur- 


THE SPIRIT OF THE ANCESTORS 57 


thermore they must do this job before their own, 
so that no one may plead he has his own work to 
do first. This is the invariable and unbreakable 
rule. 

No taxes are imposed here on any one who is 
unable to pay. ‘There is a joint marketing plan; 
that is, each man’s products are sent to a central 
store and from there taken to market. If he 
wishes to purchase anything, he gets it at this 
store, and it is charged to him. Very little money 
is passed until each man gets on his feet. 

The colonies as they are developed are of two 
types. In one the pioneer settler owns and cul- 
tivates his own farm and depends on this as his 
source of living. In the other the colonists join 
in a gild in which the entire colony owns alli the 
land, equipment, and resources on a cooperative 
basis and all share in the return. In some sec- 
tions these people live in large buildings and eat 
at one community table; in others they have sep- 
arate homes and regular individual home life. 

Nahalal is doubtless the most significant col- 
ony of the second type, having two thousand 
acres which are divided into eighty farms of 


58 PALESTINE AWAKE 


twenty-five acres each. The colonies have proved 
of great value in promoting community spirit 
and social activity. They have also been needed 
for common protection against the Bedouins; 
though since England assumed the mandate over 
Palestine, much of the lawlessness has been 
eliminated. 

The Nahalal settlement, as also some of the 
villages at Nuris, has been attractively designed 
by talented landscape artists. Drainage was a 
problem, which has been solved by emptying 
a large marsh in Kishon Valley, and domestic 
water has been secured from hillside springs. 

The pioneer work of the settlers is financed 
in many of the colonies through the Keren Haye- 
sod, which provides a credit of five hundred 
dollars for each settler, this is set aside for the 
improvement of the land. ‘The title to the land 
is held by the Jewish National Fund, although 
the settler receives a perpetual leasehold. 

The rent of the land has been fixed at 2 per 
cent of its value, and for money advanced for 
development the settler gives his note bearing 
interest at § per cent. The gild settlements at 


THE SPIRIT OF THE ANCESTORS — §9 


Dagania and Nuris are operated in a similar way, 
except that there few allotments of farms, the 
principal activities being community stores, mu- 
tual industrial efforts, and joint efforts in tilling 
the fields and sharing in the results of toil. 

There are various reasons why settlers come to 
Palestine. The chief and fundamental reason, 
however, is patriotism and the spiritual motive 
for creating the National Home. Others come 
to get away from the hardships inflicted on them 
in the countries of Europe where they have lived. 

The community method of settlement was 
developed because in the early days of coloniza- 
tion many immigrants came who had no knowl- 
edge of agriculture and therefore could not very 
well own individual farms. Under the com- 
munity plan the skilled worker shared his knowl- 
edge and his fortune with his less skilled brother. 
Many of the individual settlements have been 
built up by those who have seemingly graduated 
from the gild colonies. 

What makes the colonies of Palestine so un- 
usual and their development so attractive and 
interesting is that nothing is haphazard. Road 


60 PALESTINE AWAKE 


development heretofore has extended through 
many years without any definite objective. In 
the Palestine colonies, however, the settlers and 
their backers have a definite plan for what is to 
be done from the inception of the colony until 
it reaches a flourishing condition. In other 
words, the work “is planned and the plan is 
worked. 

The rural settlements have the advantage of 
the past experience of other countries. Certain 
rural developments have been standardized in a 
manner not unlike the most advanced. city 
planning. 

It is most inspiring to visit these colonies and 
see the zeal and enthusiasm and interest with 
which they work. It was not always so, how- 
ever. When the first settlers came they were 
people who had no agricultural experience. A 
large number of them came from countries whose 
climate and conditions were entirely different 
from those of Palestine, and these people came 
to learn a new method of living—out in the open. 
They have been accustomed to receive individ- 


ual pay for their individual work, and the codp- 


THE SPIRIT OF THE ANCESTORS 61 


erative method of dividing the results of their 
joint labor was new. They soon realized, how- 
ever, that as they advanced in knowledge and 
were able to go their own way it was easy to 
secure their own plots and develop their own 
farms. 

Experts who have visited Palestine are en- 
thusiastic in their belief that the development of 
these colonies will create a rural life unprec- 
edented in the history of any country. As one 
explained to me, what has been done in Florida 
and Southern California can be reproduced in a 
like measure in the Valley of Esdraelon and on 
the slopes of Mount Carmel. 

I have visited land newly acquired for these 
colonization centers—thousands of acres—and 
was accompanied by Charles Passman, vice- 
president and general manager of the American 
Zion Commonwealth, which works in codperation 
with the Palestine Land Development Company 
—a society founded for the purchase of land in 
Palestine. 

Perhaps there is nothing more indicative of 
the new life that is springing up in Palestine than 


62 PALESTINE AWAKE 


a motor trip through the Jordan Valley and the 
Valleys of Esdraelon and Jesreel, which from the 
beginning of biblical history have been the route 
of travel. 

On the mountain-sides of the Judean Hills 
are the old terraces where flourished in ancient 
times many olive-groves and vineyards and gar- 
dens. But they now present a sad picture because 
they have been left so long to decay and fruit- 
lessness. The contrast that appears when you 
enter the valleys, however—the green growth, 
vegetables, and fruit that greet you on all sides 
—speaks of what is being accomplished. 

Irrigation has brought the change in the last 
three or four years. The barren soil has been 
planted to orchards, in which abound oranges, 
bananas, date-palms, and all kinds of vegetables. 
There are large wheat-fields and corn-fields as 
well. And the water that has made this luxu- 
rious growth possible has been pumped from the 
Jordan. 

Although the irrigation enterprise has proved 
expensive, very soon a hydro-electric develop- 


THE SPIRIT OF THE ANCESTORS 63 


ment, which is under concession, will reduce the 
costs appreciably. 

The biggest work of the Jews in rehabilitating 
the Homeland has been the settling of the col- 
onies. There are eighty-nine of them, with a 
population of eighteen thousand. Forty-three of 
these colonies have recently been established by 
the Keren Hayesod. They have more than 3000 
inhabitants, of whom 2324 are workmen. ‘There 
are 687 working animals in these colonies and 
27,302 fowls. Buildings numbering 10f0 have 
been erected. 

To aid these colonists four agricultural experi- 
ment stations are in progress. Agricultural col- 
onization has cost the financial organization, 
Keren Hayesod, over two million dollars from 
April, 1921, to December, 1924. 

Since the war 750,000 timber and decorative 
trees have been planted, to say nothing of mil- 
lions of saplings for further forestation. Three 
forest-tree nurseries have been established at 
Jerusalem, Nahalal, Yehuda and Petah-Tikvah. 
These young trees are then distributed among 


64 PALESTINE AWAKE 


the new settlements. Altogether about 135,000 
of these trees have been replanted. 

Arab chiefs have told me that the success of 
the Jewish farmer in these colonies has proved 
a great influence to the Arab, whose agricultural 
methods have not changed since biblical times. 
The waste of labor and loss of soil have proved 
deplorable. It is mainly because of their primi- 
tive methods that the Arabs in the outer dis- 
tricts have survived. 

Elwood Mead, professor of rural institutions in 
the University of California, who has gone over 


the territory, says: 


The contrast between Arabic agriculture and that of 
the new Jewish settlements is very striking. In their 
methods they are separated by centuries. The range of 
dry land crops grown by the Jews is much wider than 
that of the Arabs. Spring vegetables, Egyptian clover, 
and Rhodes grass are valuable fodder crops that will 
enable more stock to be kept and the soil made more 
fertile. Tobacco is a money crop of great promise. 

What modern science and skill can do has been shown 
by the German farmers at Wilhema, where the yields 





A RELIGIOUS SETTLER 


“yf 





THE SPIRIT OF THE ANCESTORS 65 


are from three to five times as large as those of the 


Arab cultivators in the same neighborhood. 


In the Jewish settlements, which cover approxi- 
mately 25,000 acres, these plantings have been 
made: 3000 acres of orange-groves; 8000 acres of 
almond-groves; 4000 acres of vineyards; 1900 
acres of olive plantations; goo acres of olives and 
almonds; 600 acres of young forests, mostly eu- 
calyptus; old forests, mostly oak. 


CHAPTER VII 


EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN IN THE BIBLE LAND 
AN OBJ ECT-LESSON FOR OTHER COUNTRIES 


HE old world, Palestine, may yet teach us 
T of America the equality of women in places 
where men have been monarchs of all they sur- 
veyed. 

Unprecedented work is being accomplished by 
women on farms throughout Palestine. While it 
has been customary to see Arabian women carry- 
ing large burdens and hoeing and raking and 
gardening and even breaking stones on the high- 
ways, the young women who have come here to 
Palestine from other countries adapt themselves 
to this sort of work very quickly. 

Perhaps the unique group of this kind is the 
cooperative community at Petah-Tikvah. Here 
twenty-five women have banded themselves to- 


gether on a communal basis. The colony has been 
66 


EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN 67 


in existence nearly four years and has proved 
most successful. 

Last year their operations showed a profit of 
two hundred and fifty dollars after applying con- 
siderable money on their investments in live stock 
and buildings. 

I talked with Mrs. Bertha Fishman, who is the 
leader of the group and works side by side with 
the girls. She said: “It was interesting to 
learn that when the profit was declared and each 
of us was permitted to take her share, not one girl 
would take any money, but insisted that it should 
remain in the common treasury for future 
development. 

“Tt is this spirit of creating and seeing the fruits 
of their own work, and of course the fact that it is 
their own country and they are preparing the way 
for others, that has preserved the enthusiasm 
among these young women who are doing the 
hardest kind of work. 

“They rise very early in the morning, and you 
can hear their songs in the fields as they labor at 
their tasks. For the present, at least, the whole 
work is strictly codperative. Thus when a girl 


. 


68 PALESTINE AWAKE 


wants a dress or a pair of shoes or anything that 
she needs, it is purchased out of the common 
treasury, and it is amazing to see how little they 
will do with in order to save the common fund. 

“We have barracks for our meals and common 
activities, but most of us live in tents until we can 
make enough money to build houses. One of the 
girls got married a short time ago, and most of the 
others were disgusted with her and thought she 
should have waited until the expiration of the 
two years of apprenticeship which are required to 
make the girls self-reliant in farm work; after 
that a girl can pretty well go on her own. 

“It is surprising how these girls from all parts 
of the world work in perfect harmony and actu- 
ally take to the job at hand. We raise chickens, 
develop bee colonies, sell our milk and butter, and 
in fact do all the work of the general farm. One 
of our newest developments is the raising of to- 
bacco, and we expect considerable revenue from it. 

“An amusing incident occurred when the girls 
decided we must buy a horse and wagon and 
plowing-machine. It was suggested by one of 
them that we get at least one man to do the heav- 


i is . 

ier \ 

mits} i 
ie ve 


G te 
a, 
¢ os 


s 
i 


OL 








wy 


‘Ss 
' 


ODDVAOL ONIddIaLs 





EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN 69 


ier farm work. Arguments became warm, and 
for nearly six months the matter was tabled. 
Finally a unanimous vote was given against the 
man, although we purchased the horse and wagon 
and plowing-machine. 

“The girls soon develop such aptitude for farm- 
ing that they are able, when they leave, to take up 
little farms of their own. There is a long 
waiting-list of those who want to enter our group, 
but we do not wish to take any more than are 
needed to develop the ground allotted to us— 
more than a hundred acres. 

“One of the splendid pieces of work that the 
girls have developed is the rearing of saplings. 
Thousands of them have been laid out, and pretty 
soon they will grow into large trees.” 

“And what do the girls do for amusement?” I 
asked. 

“Their big amusement is achievement, the open 
air, the sunlight, the responsibility of codperation, 
the freedom of the outdoors. They read and 
they play among themselves on occasions. But in 
the main, when night comes, they are quite ready 
for bed. We realize we are in a pioneer period, 


70 PALESTINE AWAKE 


and look forward to more amusement and personal 
interests when we have earned enough to put us on 
a good financial basis. 


9 


“Oh, yes, they have visitors,’ she said in an- 
swer tomy query. ‘Young men, from adjoining 
colonies—and there are love-affairs. And why 
not ? 

“Back of it all there is a zeal, an enthusiasm 
that cannot be shaken by any man. They will 
succeed. It is a matter of inspiration to them. 
The big thing in their lives is to serve and serve 
well, and they have stood up side by side in a 
common cause.”’ 

And surely the happy faces that I saw, glowing 
with health, the expression of satisfaction that 
was theirs, these spoke louder than all her words. 

So interesting and successful have these young 
women’s farm colonies proved that a big school 
has just been put into operation at Nahalal, near 
Jaffa. I visited it and talked with the girls, who 
are under the leadership of China Maisel Schachat. 

Fifty young women are receiving a farming 
school education, and next year there will be one 


hundred. The most improved modern methods of 


EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN 71 


dairying have been introduced, as well as the 
planting of cereals, trees, and vegetables. An ex-~ 
cellent nursery has been planted. 

There is now a waiting-list of three hundred 
young women eager to get into this school. It 
cost approximately two hundred and fifty dollars 
to see a girl through, and the money has been pro- 
vided through subscriptions received from other 
countries. . 

They are a pioneer group of young women from 
everywhere, eager to learn farming from the 
ground up. Some of the girls will also be taught 
house-work, cooking, and sewing. These girls 
will do their part in the domestic work, while the 
others are out in the fields. 

Miss Schachat told me that she had dreamed 
about an agricultural school for girls for years. 
“And now that we have it, we are very happy in- 
deed,”’ she said. ‘“When the school was started 
we had a very definite aim in view, and that was to 
have a place for the ha/uzoth | girl pioneers] and 
the Palestinian girls, who were serious-minded 
about agricultural development, where they could 
be properly trained in the tilling of the soil. 


72 PALESTINE AWAKE 


“We knew there were ever so many young 
women who wanted to participate in the develop- 
ment of the Homeland and who, under proper 
supervision and guidance, could build capably 
and do much toward that end. Their energies 
have been wasted for a long time because there has 
been no institution where they could be taught, 
and they have dissipated their energies. 

“This school has solved a great problem for 
many of them. We want to lighten their bur- 
dens, for there are many here who have suffered 
untold hardships in other lands. Many of them, 
fine girls from splendid families, have escaped 
from untold horrors in poverty-stricken European 
countries. It can readily be seen how any 
amount of pioneering or difficulty in this free open 
life is most joyfully welcomed. 

“We give them here the material basis and the 
spiritual contentment that will be most useful in 
their own upbuilding and in their common cause 
—the Homeland,” she concluded. 


CHAPTER VIII 


HOW THE MONEY RAISED BY WORLD-WIDE 
CONTRIBUTION IS SPENT 


HOUSANDS of dollars are being collected 

in the United States, which is the main 

source of contributions of the entire Zionist move- 

ment. Just how this money is being spent in 

Palestine presents an interesting story of a new 
country and how the revenue is apportioned. 

The organization that collects this money ts 
known as the Keren Hayesod (Palestine Founda- 
tion Fund), and is the chief financial agency of 
the Zionist Organization. The raising of the 
Keren Hayesod moneys is a stirring story in itself. 
It is a world-wide movement that reaches into 
every community where there are Jews. Those 
who are interested in Jewish progress in Palestine 
naturally wish to know about the money that is 
being spent there. 


The budget subscribed for the Keren Hayesod 
73 


74 PALESTINE AWAKE 


for the Hebrew year 5685, ending in the autumn 
of 1925, was $2,232,000. This does not include 
money investment in the purchase of land, which 
is under the auspices of the Jewish National Fund, 
the actual management of which is in the hands 
of the Jewish colonies. 

The Keren Hayesod spends its money mainly 
for social, economic, and public works, which in 
many localities are assumed by the state; on ac- 
count of the condition of the exchequer, such work 
must be promoted in Palestine by a private or- 
ganization. Although the whole of the popula- 
tion benefits, the chief burden is borne by the 
Keren Hayesod. 

The important consideration, however, is the 
fact that the British government, which has the 
mandate, gives the Palestine government the 
maximum of security. The Palestine govern- 
ment incurs no expenses designed to bring about 
a direct increase of the Jewish population through 
immigration. This has been left to Jewish 
achievement and is the primary function of the 
Zionist Organization. 

Immigration, beginning as it does in so many 


HOW THE MONEY IS SPENT 75 


countries, presents a big problem in itself and a 
most absorbing one, since in most countries the 
prospective immigrant to Palestine goes through 
a selective process. He must learn the old He- 
brew language, which is not the present-day Yid- 
dish as it is spoken. He must in many instances 
undergo a course of training in agriculture, which 
is to be his first means of support. Various train- 
ing organizations throughout Europe are already 
instructing twenty thousand prospective immi- 
grants. 

When the immigrant is ready to depart, there 
are the head-tax, quarantine, disembarkation, 
housing maintenance, transportation costs, medi- 
cal attention, employment, and so on. The 
Zionist Organization allots, for selecting immi- 
grants and seeing them through, the sum of $335,- 
000 a year. 

Although the immigration to Palestine is ap- 
proximately ten thousand a year, within the last 
three or four years it has increased considerably, 
so that in a single month recently thirty-nine hun- 
dred immigrants came to Palestine. It is antici- 
pated that increased financial support will be 


76 PALESTINE AWAKE 


needed for this increased number of immigrants. 

Thirty thousand dollars is allotted to the Im- 
migration Department in Jerusalem and the other 
points of entry. Thirty thousand dollars has 
been allowed for loans to immigrants. Agricul- 
tural colonization work cost this year $625,000, 
agricultural experiment stations $425,000, and 
for land that is to be purchased through the na- 
tional fund $25,000 has been set aside. 

In the eighty-nine colonies that have been es- 
tablished, three thousand persons are employed in 
agriculture. It is expected that other money 
will be needed for long-term loans for these work- 
ers, who are now ready to start out on their own 
small farms. 

A unique feature of the establishment of the 
Homeland and the giving of work to thousands 
of men is the Solel Boneh (Jewish Laborers’ Pub- 
lic Works Organization), which does an impor- 
tant work toward firmly settling the urban Jew- 
ish worker in Palestine. It is a most interesting 
development in mutual profit-sharing. While it 
was organized purely for the purpose of building 
up Palestine, it has constructed roads and build- 


NHWOM YOA AULSNGNI ONIATYHL V SHTAHSYON AAaL 








HOW THE MONEY IS SPENT 77 


ings to the value of $3,520,000, of which only 
$587,500 was for Jewish national institutions. 
The remainder went to public works for the gov- 
ernment and private bodies. The importance of 
this organization was manifested during the earlier 
part of the last four years, when the colonies were 
still in their infancy. There were many immi- 
grants who could not be absorbed, and they were 
given employment through the Solel Boneh. 

The Keren Hayesod has invested forty thou- 
sand dollars in the Solel Boneh and has therefore 
become a business partner in this codperative en- 
deavor. Last October nearly two thousand 
laborers were employed in various branches of 
public work which were contracted for by this 
group. Forty-five thousand dollars has been allo- 
cated for the purpose of aiding individuals in 
small industrial enterprises. 

The Keren Hayesod has also decided to invest 
money in the city banks and has made an initial 
investment of two hundred thousand dollars in 
the General Mortgage Bank of Palestine. This 
provides money for building of houses and has 
aided in the construction of more than three hun- 


78 PALESTINE AWAKE 


dred. ‘To enable it to continue its activities fifty 
thousand dollars more has been provided. 

Many of the city laborers have nowhere to live, 
and efforts have been made to secure comfortable 
quarters for them in the country so that they may 
go to and from the city daily, and four hundred 
thousand dollars has been invested in garden spots 
in close proximity to the towns. 

Education plays a tremendous part in the work 
of this financial organization. It has provided 
three hundred thousand dollars for the mainte- 
nance of 128 schools, in which over twelve thou- 
sand children are in attendance. The only con- 
tributions that the Palestine government makes to 
this cause is ten thousand dollars annually. As 
soon as a more adequate educational system is de- 
vised by the government this item will be reduced 
in the Keren Hayesod budget. 

The Jewish National Fund is the chief source - 
of funds for purchasing land. Some hundreds of 
young workers have been trained in five Na- 
tional Fund Schools. When they were gradu- 
ated they purchased Jewish acreage and leased 
farms on National Fund land, and they brought 


HOW THE MONEY IS SPENT, 79 


new life into the colonization movement. They 
were the pioneers (haluzim), the defenders of 
Jewish property. 

The area of rural property acquired by the Na- 
tional Fund up to the end of 1924 amounted to 
about thirty-seven thousand acres. Thirty settle- 
ments have been established in Judea, Samaria, 
the Valley of Jezreel, and Galilee. Since 1920 
the Jewish National Fund has confined itself to 
its original program of the purchase of land, and 
in that connection it makes all the first improve- 
ments on the soil. 

The fund also functions for the Zionist move- 
ment in regard to its urban land policy. Its first 
object was to secure public buildings, such as the 
Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, the Tel Aviv 
Gymnasium, and the Haifa Technical School. 
It also participated in the acquisition of the site 
of the Hebrew University. 

Since the fund retains permanent ownership of 
all its property in the name of the Jewish people, 
the property can never be disposed of by those 
who work to improve it. Thus there is no specu- 
lation and no quick turnovers at advancing figures. 


80 PALESTINE AWAKE 


Persons of limited means are enabled to settle on 
the land of the Jewish National Fund and to 
build houses on easy terms, and thus the price of 
other land is kept within limits. 

The total amount collected during the eight 
months prior to June, 1925, was $175,447.67, as 
against $120,144.48 for the corresponding eight 
months in 1924. ‘The increase amounts to $95,- 
303.19, or about 45.8 per cent of the total col- 
lected in the eight months of the previous year. 
This is the largest increase on record, and it is to 
be devoted to further development. 





‘ : r : ; 
FR oe ea 
oy Lt ie i a ‘Es 
Abe , iy i rN 


4 
a 


- ¥ y 
<e* 
rae 2 D 
: : v-6ci*. 
a 4 ; e< 
riety) co Vy 
+ Aud i 
fe va , ar 
*/) a \ 
an a 
mT an a at 


a  &, »% . ’ 
I Pe aT 
ay" H aA er is 
Se 7 a Ae 
i Ply Tk [ oe j 
7 ty Mey Te 
aa a * 
4 7 if @ 
" air ¢ i 
* say » 
ay i A > , 
rate | -f i 
, ; i 
. sa : 
7 wy i 
id iey ui.” 0 \ 
wtf ce ee 
b ' if wh! ( 
i] « 
‘n, AG wey 
6 rf \? ‘ 
i wa! 
| =@ | Fa 
~ re, ' ‘ 
. rr : } 
7 » 
A : i , : af: if 1 @ 
Near / gis RELAY Sane ha) toe a de a 
- ‘ ae > , n Tue ;: ‘ ' ' 
tn . ¥ Pf : 7 ; ve @ ; : / ; + ' 
i ae Lh 





NILSHUTVd NI YSNOH LNAWLYVdV AO AdAL MAN 





CHAPTER IX 


THE BIG TASK OF MAKING PRESENT-DAY 
CIVILIZATION 


- LL I have seen in Palestine is beyond my 
A most optimistic dreams.” ‘These were the 
words of Morris Rothenberg, chairman of the na- 
tional board of directors of the American Keren 
Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund), who was 
making his first visit to the Holy Land, although 
he has made hundreds of speeches about it in the 
United States. 

His path crossed mine several times in the 
course of travel to various parts of Palestine. He 
gave me, in brief, the financial situation, as 
follows: 

There are approximately one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand Jews in Palestine. Since 
the war sixty thousand Jews have come, the ages 
ranging from nineteen to thirty. All of them ex- 


cept for a small proportion, have been supplied 
81 


82 PALESTINE AWAKE 


with employment either on the land, on public 
works, in home building, or in other industries. 
From three to four thousand men, mainly immi- 
grants, have been employed in the public works 
and on buildings. A workmen’s bank with a 
capital of $300,000 was established by the Keren 
Hayesod to finance the labor gilds; the Zionist 
Organization, through the Jewish Colonial Trust, 
has taken preference shares in this bank to the ex- 
tent of $200,000. 

The Keren Hayesod is participating with a sum 
of $250,000 in the Rutenberg scheme for electri- 
fication, the Palestine Electric Corporation, Ltd. 
Jaffa and Tel Aviv are provided already with elec- 
tric light and power, and the power-station in 
Haifa is now complete. 

The Hebrew educational system comprises 
forty-two kindergartens, seventy-four elementary 
schools, five secondary schools and teachers’ train- 
ing colleges, six apprentice workshops—a total of 
127 educational institutions. The teachers num- 
ber 450, the pupils 12,200. 

Work has to be provided for the immigrants. 
In addition, thousands of them go to Palestine at 


THE BIG TASK 83 


their own expense, and also a corresponding num- 
ber of doctors, teachers, and officials, must find 
employment in the country. The development 
points to a growth of the Jewish population in 
geometric progression, so that within ten years 
from 500,000 to 1,000,000 Jews could settle in 
Palestine. 

Naturally, it is in every respect the work of the 
first year’s construction which presents the greatest 
difficulties. But what this work demands from 
the self-sacrifice of the Jews is, as the figures given 
show, really small. The work can and must suc- 
ceed if the Jews of the entire world who have 
approved the reconstruction of Palestine contrib- 
ute to the Keren Hayesod according to their 
means. 

The collections of the first three years for the 
Keren Hayesod, $7,500,000, are certainly con- 
siderable when it is remembered that it takes a 
certain time to win over the Jewries scattered over 
the face of the earth for a regular, adequate, and 
voluntary system of self-taxation. But it is neces- 
sary, as has been shown, that the income of the 
Keren Hayesod should be at least doubled in 


84 PALESTINE AWAKE 


order to assure the necessary rate of progress on 
the work of restoration. 

With an income to the Keren Hayesod of 
$5,000,000 a year, the rest could be assured; and 
within a decade at the most, half a million Jews 
could become productively active in Palestine. 

Mr. Rothenberg gave me the percentage dis- 
tribution of the money that was expended from 
1921 to 1924, and it is significant of the work 
that goes into setting up new centers of civiliza- 
tion. Out of $6,501,940, the percentages used 
for various purposes were as follows: Agricul- 
tural colonization, 27.01 per cent; education, 
20.84 per cent; immigration, 12.68 per cent; in- 
vestments, 9.12 per cent; public works, 8.52 per 
cent; health, 7.39 per cent; special expenses and 
National Organization, 4.10 per cent; adminis- 
trative expenses, 4.07 per cent; Mizrachi Organ- 
ization, 2.79 per cent; Jewish National Fund, 
1.52 per cent; Technicum, .99 per cent; trade and 
industry, .Q7 per cent. 

He stated that although he had made many 
speeches on the Palestinian project and the de- 
velopment of the Holy Land, he found on his visit 


THE BIG TASK 85 


here that all the praise he had sung of the work 
accomplished could have been accentuated a 
hundredfold. 

“We have reached the point,” said Mr. Rothen- 
berg, “‘where the non-Zionist group, which com- 
prises many prominent men of New York, is will- 
ing to go into the general work of building up 
Palestine under the Jewish Agency, which is the 
agency mentioned in the mandate over which Eng- 
land rules Palestine. 

“Many of the leaders among the non-Zionists 
have contributed to the Keren Hayesod. It is 
not the amount of their contributions which mat- 
ters, but the fact that they have already indorsed 
the instrument set up by the Zionist Organization 
in its reconstruction work. 

“There are many splendid people who are not 
at the present within the Zionist Organization 
proper but who are anxious to help in restoring 
the Holy Land and in bringing immigrants here 
to settle. These are the elements that should be 
encouraged to aid.” 

Emanuel Neumann, formerly an officer of the 
Keren Hayesod and now of the American Zion 


86 PALESTINE AWAKE 


Commonwealth, was also a visitor in Jerusalem 
during my stay. He gave me his views as 
‘follows: 

' “During the past two years there has been a 
change in the character of the immigration. 
There have been coming into Palestine thousands 
of the new type of settlers; families, middle-class 
men, merchants and artisans, many of whom are 
desirous of changing their occupations and settling 
in Palestine upon the land, but who desire to 
settle upon the land as individual landholders, as 
farmers, responsible for their own holdings. And 
for these there has been little provision. 

‘A great deal has been said in the past about 
the need of our attracting additional forces and 
additional capital for the upbuilding of Palestine. 
We are all committed to that policy. It requires 
no further discussion. 

“The fact of the matter is that we have been 
pouring large sums of money into Palestine, con- 
sidering the strength of our organization. The 
Keren Hayesod alone has been putting into Pales- 
tine every year of its own funds over $2,000,000, 


THE BIG TASK 87 


and its total budget for work in Palestine is at 
least $2,500,000 to $2,750,000 annually. 

“If we take into consideration the collections 
of the Hadassah (the women’s Zionist organiza- 
tion) and the remarkable growth of the Jewish 
National Fund during the past few years and the 
achievements of the American Zion Common- 
wealth and the various investment funds secured 
for Palestine through the stimulus of the Zionist 
Organization, we find that we are putting into 
Palestine now at least $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 
annually through Zionist agencies.” 


CHAPTER X 


WHERE YOUTH BECOMES THE SCIENTIFIC TILLER 
QF THE SOIL 


OUNG men between the ages of eighteen 
y and twenty-five are in attendance, and 
half of them working their own way, in the only 
school of its kind in existence, the Agricultural 
School of Mikweh-Israel. Every year between 
fifty and sixty boys have been graduated as scien- 
tific practical farmers, trained for any branch of 
agricultural work in Palestine. Hundreds of the 
young pioneers who are now coming from other 
countries are seeking entrance into this school, 
which is unable to take them all. 

A vision of the Jews settling on their own land, 
which came to a few men like Baron Edmond de 
Rothschild and Jacob Nettef, caused them to or- 
ganize the school. We in America have much to 
learn from it, for it is unique among farm schools. 


Although the Mikweh-Israel was founded by 
88 


SCIENTIFIC TILLER OF THE SOIL 89 


another organization fifty-four years ago for 
purely educational purposes, it soon realized that 
the need of the region was for cultivation of the 
soil rather than for cultural education. The 
Turkish government granted a large land conces- 
sion near Jaffa, and the school is situated there 
now. ‘The site was a swamp, infested with ma- 
laria. Great difficulties were encountered in se- 
curing qualified teachers of agriculture, but the 
first failures were overcome, and the school is now 
in a flourishing condition so far as training and 
accomplishment are concerned. 

More than one hundred young boys are at pres- 
ent taught the business of farming from start to 
finish. While I was at the school I had the very 
interesting task of presenting five scholarships 
from America to the young men best equipped to 
become farmers. The scholarships were pre- 
sented in the name of Abraham L. Erlanger, chair- 
man of the New York branch of the National 
Farm School of America. I believe it was the 
first time that American money had been provided 
for the school. Mr. Erlanger had said: 

“Every boy should have a chance to equip him- 


go PALESTINE AWAKE 


self to earn his own support. The trouble in the 
past has been that very little aid has been forth- 
coming for those who might be inclined to go 
back to the soil. It is my belief that there are 
thousands of them everywhere. Especially am 
I glad to extend this bit of help to boys many of 
whom have come from countries of great depres- 
sion into the Holy Land, to make their own way, 
and perhaps the way of others dependent on 
them.” 

I went through the institution and studied the 
conditions prevailing there. Besides the regular 
pupils, the school is training from eighty to one 
hundred pioneers (haluzém) to work their way 
through, and they take educational extension 
courses also. ‘The school aims to be coeduca- 
tional, although in fact only twenty girls are tak- 
ing its courses. The haluzim, after serving a 
year, are eligible for regular admission to the 
school and are also permitted to enter some of the 
colonies for practical work. During their serv- 
ice in the school they are paid seventy-five cents a 
day, which covers all their expenses. 

The school has 650 acres of land. On it you 


_ >» s - 


SCIENTIFIC TILLER OF THE SOIL 91 


will find everything that grows in Palestine— 
oranges, olives, and all the fruits and vegetables. 
Cereal-growing has also been undertaken. The 
school is especially interested in the development 
of vineyards and wine-pressing, which form a 
profitable activity. There are also stables, cow- 
sheds, a modern dairy, and a poultry development, 
with everything indeed that makes a complete 
agricultural plant. The school is supplied with 
the most modern machinery. A_ thoroughly 
equipped laboratory is a part of the school, where 
experiments are made on trees, land, and fertili- 
zation. The draining of the swamp is progress- 
ing, and the planting of eucalyptus-trees has 
helped to do away with malaria. 

Evening courses are provided for those who 
cannot attend a full day. The sale of foodstuffs 
helps toward the upkeep of the place and of the 
student body, so that an appropriation of only 
fifty thousand dollars a year is required to main- 
tain the institution. The cost to each student for 
a three-year course is $750, or $250 a year. Ell 
Krause, the secretary and manager of the school, 
would like to admit all who apply, since there are 


g2 PALESTINE AWAKE 


large areas yet to be developed; but lack of funds 
sets a limit on the acceptance of the applications. 

The Beit-Jemal School of Agriculture, which is 
situated on the pleasant hills of Judea, about 
twenty-two miles from Jerusalem, has a meteoro- 
logical observatory, a laboratory of agrarian chem- 
istry, and a modern development of the agricul- 
tural activities. The school has a vast tract of 
land cultivated to seed and forage, vines, olive- 
trees, and fruits; and it is provided with a large 
stock of cattle and much modern machinery. 

The course of training lasts four years, after 
which the pupil is prepared to specialize in any 
branch of farm work. A preparatory term is ar- 
ranged for pupils who have not completed their 
elementary education, and a course intended for 
general culture is included in the work of the 
school. 

At the expiration of each term, as a condition 
for promotion, pupils have to pass a theoretical 
as well as a practical examination, and a general 
examination is held after the completion of the 
studies before a diploma of graduation is granted. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE OPPOSITION TO THE JEWS, AND THE 
DEFENSE 


Me has been said about the opposition 


presented to the Jews in the reconstruc- 
tion of their Homeland in Palestine by the Arab 
inhabitants of the country. I discussed the situa- 
tion with his Eminence the Great Mufti, Emine 
Hussimi, who is the religious head of the entire 
Arab population in Palestine and may be said 
to control their politics to a great degree. 

The audience the Great Mufti granted me was 
somewhat of a ceremony. ‘There were present 
one of the Arab princes, Emir Eatel Arslan; a 
very prominent Arab lawyer of Jerusalem, Acuni 
Abdul Hadi; and Sheik Mohamed Salek. The 
Mufti’s secretary served as an interpreter. There 
were many questions and answers passed back and 
forth, but his side of the conversation may be 


summarized as follows: 
93 


94 PALESTINE AWAKE 


“Before the war, and for the period of a gen- 
eration, the Moslems were trying to establish 
their own national home in Palestine. It was 
practically understood that the Turkish govern- 
ment, which was in control, would give us the 
country. Our people have been very poor and 
consequently have progressed little, but still we 
looked forward to obtaining independence. 
When the war came we fought on the side of the 
Allies, and we do not believe the war could have 
been won without us. We had the same under- 
standing with them, that our independence would 
be given us, but it was not. 

“Since the Balfour Declaration, which gives 
the Jews a national home, we have expected that 
there would be a large influx of Jewish popula- 
tion, which would immediately take charge of 
the country. But this has not been the case so 
far, and we want to do everything we can to 
work in peace with the Jews. We feel, however, 
that much of the propaganda that is being spread 
tends toward the establishment of an exclusive 
national home for the Jews, although the inten- 
tions of the English government have been fairly 


~ 


OPPOSITION AND DEFENSE 95 


set forth. We have no fear that our rights will 
be invaded or that there will be any serious blood- 
shed, for the handful of Jews here, about a hun- 
dred thousand, are outnumbered by our seven 
hundred thousand Arabs in Palestine and near-by 
countries. 

“We are anxious that everything should be 
done in the interest of our people, and that the 
English government, which has the mandate, 
shall be impartial, which is its tendency.” 

Knowing my interest in children, the Great 
Mufti dwelt on the fact that the new generation 
cannot be expected to be better than the old one 
until something has been done for the children. 

“The poverty and degradation among the 
children in Palestine is frightful,” he said. “TI 
personally will be glad to aid in any concentrated 
effort that will start something in the interest of 
the children, whether they be Jews, Arabs, or 
Christians. But such aid must begin with the 
government, which can assist the various reli- 
gions to create a better citizenry. This is one of 
the most important tasks ahead of Palestine.” 

Before we parted we conformed to custom and 


96 PALESTINE AWAKE 


sat at the table, where they served Turkish 
coffee and cakes. And he sought to assure me 
that the one thing he and his people wished was 
peace and that he would do all he could to pro- 
mote it. 

The Great Mufti impressed me as being a cul- 
tured man, a gentle spirit, but full of intensity for 
the welfare of his own people, and withal, broad- 
minded and tolerant. 

He is the kind of man who would do much to 
avoid unnecessary violence. 

A different note was sounded in another in- 
terview, with the greatest opponent of the Jewish 
influx into Palestine, Mussa Kasim Pasha. He 
has been the leading figure in what is termed the 
Arab Executive, which heads the political organi- 
zation of the Arab population in Palestine. He 
is an out-an-out irreconcilable. He talked for 
nearly two hours, and his story is one to which 
he will stick to the end of time, I believe. He 
refuses first of all to recognize the Balfour Dec- 
laration and the English government’s attitude 
toward a Homeland for the Jews. He is against 
the Jews from start to finish. There can be no 


OPPOSITION AND DEFENSE 97 


peace, according to him, so long as the Jews and 
Arabs are in Palestine. He wants the country 
for his own people and for nobody else. And he 
believes he is in the right. It matters not to him 
that the Jews had Jerusalem as their birthright 
two thousand years ago; the Arabs have it now, 
and the Jews have been away from it for so 
long that the country belongs to his people and 
must therefore be Arabic. 

After considerable parley I put this question 
to him: “Can’t you find some way by which 
the Jews can have their Homeland here and live 
at peace with the Arab, as the Zionists have de- 
clared times without number they wish to do?” 

“There is one way,” he answered, “and that is 
for Palestine to be given to us along with our in- 
dependence. Then Palestine will become the 
Arabic national home. When we once control 
the country, we shall permit the Jews to come 
in, and after they have settled and remained here 
a certain number of years they can acquire citizen- 
ship as formerly. What we would like would be 
that the Jews who were here before the Zionist 
movement began should be permitted to remain, 


98 PALESTINE AWAKE 


but that those who have come since then should 
be excluded.” 

I tried to understand his reasoning, but his 
answer was merely: ‘““That’s the way it ought 
to be.” I persisted that if he pursued this course 
only strife would come of it, and that the fact 
remains that the English government by the man- 
date is there to protect the Jews as well as the 
Arabs. He answered that the Arabs, because 
of their numbers, were not afraid of anything 
that might happen. 

I afterward discussed the subject with other 
prominent Arabs in various parts of Palestine, 
and I found that the attitude of Mussa Kasim 
Pasha is not common among the younger and 
more vigorous element. They are anxious that 
every effort be made to promote the harmony of 
the country. The general situation might be set 
forth as follows: 

Some of the Arabian political leaders have as- 
serted at times that the English government is 
chiefly interested in the establishment of the Jew- 
ish National Home .and that for this purpose 
England has allocated land to the Jews and has 


OPPOSITION AND DEFENSE 99 


given them preference in regard to education and 
political appointments. The Jews, however, 
have complained that the government is inactive 
in these very respects, that it does less than is 
required by the mandate, that the whole work of 
building up the Homeland has been left to the 
Jewish people themselves. These complaints 
have been thus answered by Sir Herbert Samuel, 
former high commissioner of Palestine, who is 
generally conceded to be impartial: 

“So far as there is any truth in these criticisms, 
it is the latter that has substance—the Jewish side 
of it. The English government has found it 
possible to do very little toward giving the Jewish 
people land for settlement. 

‘The school system as it now stands, although 
a reform is already under way, leaves almost the 
whole burden of the education of the Jewish 
child population upon the shoulders of the Jews 
themselves, in addition to the contribution which 
they make through taxes to the government sys- 
tem of Arab schools. Of the many competent 
Jews who have offered themselves for govern- 
ment positions, it has not been possible, without 


100 PALESTINE AWAKE 


injustice to others, to employ more than a small 
number. But the consequence has been that the 
Jewish movement has become self-dependent. 

“This at least is propitious, that the building 
of the National Home has not been the work of 
any government. It is not an artificial construc- 
tion of laws and official fostering; it is the out- 
come of the energy and enterprise of the Jewish 
people themselves.” 

I found that the dissensions that occurred di- 
rectly after the war had subsided were chiefly due 
to the fact that the Arabs had expected great 
numbers of Jews to come into the country, but 
this did not occur. Their fear that their villages 
would be attacked by armed Jewish colonists, 
which agitators had aroused, was found to be 
groundless. The day when one hundred thousand 
Jews would land in Palestine to take possession of 
the land did not come. Days, months, and years 
followed, and the Arab’s fear that the mosques 
would be closed and turned into synagogues was 
never realized. 

On the contrary, a new and purely Moslemic 
body, controlling all the Moslem rights, was es- 


OPPOSITION AND DEFENSE 101 


tablished, and it has rebuilt and restored its holy 
places. Under such conditions it was difficult 
to harbor the feeling of alarm indefinitely. As 
has been said, “people cannot be induced to re- 
main constantly mobilized against a danger which 
never eventuates.”’ 

In the words of the former high commissioner, 
this is what happened: 

“The population gradually came to understand 
the spirit that animates a British administration. 
The activity of the district officers, always in 
and out of the villages, obviously working for the 
benefit of the people, had a wide-spread effect. 
Under their auspices there were signs of progress 
such as had been unknown before. Nearly two 
hundred villages could show new schools. Roads 
were being constructed in every direction. Sev- 
eral villages were provided with new water- 
supplies. Fresh land was being brought under 
cultivation. Agricultural experts gave useful ad- 
vice. ‘Tobacco-growing was encouraged. Rob- 
bers were put down. Old blood-feuds were 
settled. What seemed indeed surprising was 
that, although the war had for some time been 


102 PALESTINE AWAKE 


over, tens of thousands of dollars were received 
in hard cash by Arab villagers in various parts 
of the country in payment for the damage done 
by the British army. 

“And when the new government needed land 
it paid for it at a fair price. The old Arab offi- 
cials who had received pensions under the Turks 
received them still; the rights of those who re- 
tired and were qualified were recognized and met. 
Slowly the suspicions of the new administration 
yielded under the influence of experience; grad- 
ually it acquired in the minds of the people a 
reputation for justice and good will. 

“The Palestine population has been made to 
realize that the Balfour Declaration plainly sets 
forth the interest the British government has 
taken in the Jews securing the Homeland, al- 
though the rights of other citizens are to be 
conserved. Not only this, but each succeed- 
ing government in Great Britain, no matter of 
what party, definitely affirmed the policy. The 
League of Nations finally indorsed the mandate, as 
well as both houses of the United States 
Congress. 


OPPOSITION AND DEFENSE 103 


“It was therefore made clear to the leaders of 
opinion exactly what the Balfour Declaration 
meant and what it did not mean. The Zionists 
on their side were careful to make no exaggerated 
claims that would justify the renewal of alarm. 
Of the large Jewish expenditure in the country, a 
considerable part percolated to the Arab popula- 
tion; the sales of land enabled many owners to 
free themselves from debt and to obtain capital 
with which to develop the lands that they re- 
tained. It is impossible for many million dollars 
to be spent in so small a country without all of the 
people feeling the benefit. 

“In the beginning the political committee men- 
tioned was appointed by the Arabs to thwart all 
the efforts of the Jews. It is evident, however, 
that to maintain the purpose of action of any 
political movement is difficult. In a population 
such as the Arabs in Palestine, the difficulty 1s 
more than usually great. For, as among the 
Jews, so also among the Arabs, there is much 
diversity. The Christian shopkeeper of Jerusa- 
lem does not necessarily share the views of the 
Moslem merchant of Samaria. The business 


104 PALESTINE AWAKE 


man of Jaffa or Haifa, educated perhaps in 
France or in England, has little in common with 
the Bedouin tribesman of Beersheba. But for 
political purposes all are designated equally 
‘Arabs,’ and it is often assumed that they must 
therefore be animated by the same mind. 

“At first the Arabic press approved the actions 
of the political committee. There are thirteen 
newspapers printed in Arabic—five weekly and 
the others triweekly. And as a whole they en- 
couraged this agitation. But in time the com- 
mittee became less and less representative of the 
Arabic population. Change of opinion was 
undergone, although the committee refused to 
change theirs. They insisted on the repeal of 
the Balfour Declaration, although the withdrawal 
of the British government was not suggested. 
The demand was made, however, that the govern- 
ment should be controlled by a legislature in 
which the Arabs should have a clear majority. 
Until these demands were conceded they should 
adopt an attitude of non-codperation. 

“Such a policy, however, got nowhere. The 
more thoughtful of the Arabs withdrew their 


OPPOSITION AND DEFENSE 105 


support from the committee. The general meet- 
ings of the committee became very controversial 
and at last ceased to be held. One newspaper 
after another ceased to support criticism. Fi- 
nally there came a definite division. A separate 
national party was formed which included men of 
equal authority of the other committee termed 
Arab Executive. 

“The government of Palestine patiently pro- 
ceeded along the path that had been set. The 
constructive measures that have been described 
were set on foot. The administration was as 
active in promoting the welfare of the Arabs as 
if there had been no Zionist complication and 
no refusal to codperate; it has been animated 
in this respect by the same spirit as any British 
administration in Asia or Africa.” 

Sir Herbert Samuel established an Advisory 
Council, consisting of ten British officials and ten 
Palestinians (four Moslems, three Christians, and 
three Jews). For two years all legislation was 
submitted to this Advisory Council, which ren- 
dered useful service. Although there was con- 
siderable criticism, the government never found 


106 PALESTINE AWAKE 


it necessary to reject the advice of these non- 
official members. 

All this tends to show that once government 
under the mandate has established itself and once 
definite policies are understood to be firm and 
fixed, the population of Palestine, with all its 
creeds and religions, can be assured of peace. 
This is the view of the optimistic leaders on 
all sides. 


CHAPTER XII 


OVERNIGHT BY RAIL FROM CAIRO TO JERUSALEM, 
WHICH TOOK FIFTEEN DAYS BY CAMEL 


HEN I boarded the train for Jerusalem 

at Kantara, having arrived there from 

Cairo, I could not believe my eyes. I prepared 
to be uncomfortable on a long night’s journey, 
as I had been in Europe, where the sleeping-car 
companies have much to learn from the U.S. A. 
But here I found a very fine sleeping-car, better 
than anything I had seen in all Europe. Each 
of its compartments has upper and lower berths, 
which are constructed of steel and painted to 
resemble mahogany. Altogether the cars are 
as easy to travel in as anything in America. For 
old Palestine does not have to go through all the 
growing-pains of development that the other 
countries have known, since it can go out into the 


new world and choose the best. To go to Jerusa- 
107 


108 PALESTINE AWAKE 


lem in this luxurious style is a far cry from the 
recent past. A 1912 guide-book on Palestine con- 


tains the following: 


The whole journey to Jerusalem occupies from eight 
to ten days. The railway is taken from Cairo to Kan- 
tara where the journey by camel is commenced; or again, 
if the journey is via Port Said or Alexandria, one goes 
to Jaffa where the steamer anchors outside the rock- 
girt harbor. In rough weather the disembarkation will 
be difficult and as much as $4 is sometimes demanded 
from each person. If the wind blows from the west, 
landing is impracticable and passengers must go on to 
Haifa or Beirut. 


Sometimes it took as much as fifteen days to 
make this journey, and here I was doing it in one 
night. In fact, we had tea in Cairo, and break- 
fasted at ten o’clock the next morning in Jerusa- 
lem. In like manner a visitor may in the morn- 
ing look out over the Mediterranean on Mount 
Carmel, and in the moonlight of the same night 
he may bow before the pyramids and the sphinx 
in Egypt. 

During the night our train crossed the Sinai 
Desert. The first vision that greeted me as I 


OVERNIGHT BY RAIL 109 


awoke in the early morning was a caravan of 
camels and Arabs crossing the desert. From 
that moment the camel and the Arab were never 
out of sight for any length of time. 

The camel and his little associate, the donkey, 
are still the chief burden-bearers—the Oriental 
Express. But fast, very fast indeed, the bus and 
the motor-truck are coming in to replace these 
picturesque carriers along the highways of the 
Old World. Every turn, every scene is a picture 
in itself. All night long on the winding roads 
of Jerusalem you hear the tinkle of the bells 
of the camel caravans under starry tropic skies, 
making an all-night journey, bringing produce 
or merchandise to market. 

You would hate to lose those lovely pictures 
that satisfy the soul of the artist. Yet when you 
think of the human endeavor that goes to waste, 
the long journeys that are made by foot beside 
the donkey and camel—by people that have trod 
along in this fashion for centuries, you are will- 
ing to forego some of your esthetic joys and 
satisfy yourself with printed pictures. You look 
forward to the day when these animal servitors 


110 PALESTINE AWAKE 


of a past age will be given an easier path in green 
fields and fertile valleys, and will be replaced 
in the busier traffic by motor transport. 

I made several automobile trips through Jer- 
icho, to Jaffa, to Haifa, and to other centers— 
over new roads and roads that are just in the 
process of building, passing hundreds of these 
camels and donkeys; and everything points to the 
waning of their day. 

Perhaps nowhere in an old country have such 
rapid strides been made in railway development 
as in Palestine. This was due mainly to the 
war, when it was necessary to transport large 
numbers of troops and supplies. It is a long 
story of these railways that were built during 
the conflict by General Allenby and his army, 
of the difficult mountain passes and the steep 
climbs that taxed the ingenuity of the best en- 
gineers. As in the case of the line from Artuf 
to Jerusalem, parts of mountains had to be broken 
away so to leave a narrow rocky shelf to sustain 
the track. 

This, of course, was in the early days, when the 
main line was completed during the war by rail- 


OVERNIGHT BY RAIL 111 


road recruits in the army. The construction of 
the railway was forced by the rapid advance of 
the army and the urgent need of transportation for 
troops and supplies. 

Pages could be written on the difficulties en- 
countered. For instance, entry into Haifa 
required that a great sea-wall be built a con- 
siderable distance south of the town. The 
amount of work that was accomplished in the 
completion of this railroad can be realized when 
it is understood that in the last three months of 
the war more than six hundred and fifty thousand 
men were carried and about four hundred thou- 
sand tons of supplies—a daily average of twenty- 
eight fully loaded trains out from Kantara. 

After the Armistice, as the army railway men 
had left the service, it was very difficult to re- 
place them with experienced workers. It was 
then that the Arabs, Jews, Syrians, Egyptians, 
Armenians, and others were enlisted, the majority 
of them unskilled. The name of the road became 
the “Palestine Railways’; it had been the 
“Palestine Military Railways’ during the war. 

One finds not only excellent sleeping accommo- 


112 PALESTINE AWAKE 


dations on the trains to Jerusalem but restaurant- 
cars supplying three meals a day are attached to 
Jong-distance trains; and you pass through the 
ancient stations of Deir E] Belah, Rafa, El Arish, 
El Abd, and Romani, where were once situated 
camps teeming with the life of a great army. 
Now what has this extensive railway develop- 
ment accomplished? In 1913 there were 3900 
tourists in Palestine. In 1922, 1923, and 1924 
the number of tickets issued to tourists amounted 
to 13,556, 15,501, and 19,470 respectively. It 
now takes five hours to go from Haifa to Jerusa- 
lem; from Jaffa to Jerusalem, three hours; from 
Kantara to Jerusalem, nine hours; and from 
Nazareth to Jerusalem, ten and one half hours. 
Automobiles are the prevailing means of trans- 
portation for the tourist, and fine roads are rapidly 
being built. What is now contemplated is a rail 
route from Calais to Luxor, requiring only 150 
miles of construction along the sea-coast from 
Tripoli to Haifa; a branch-line will be run from 
there to Bagdad. At the present time motors are 
being operated on the new road from Haifa to 
Bagdad, and it is upon this road that steel tracks 


OVERNIGHT BY RAIL 113 


are to be laid. The plan is to provide a luxuri- 
ous route from London to Cairo and Luxor, and 
then to Bagdad en route to India. 

The government has also an extensive build- 
ing plan which includes some nineteen new roads. 
Most significant are the privately constructed 
roads, of which hundreds are being built within 
the colonies by the Jewish settlers. ‘Thousands 
of American dollars are going into them, and 
they will provide connecting links with the main 
government highways. In the years to come, 
they will be taken over and maintained by the 
government, just as would be done with the 
streets in any newly laid out village or town in 
the United States. 

Big preparations are being made for the tourist. 
Heretofore he has ended his wandering at Egypt; 
although desiring to go to the Holy Land, he has 
been precluded because of the hardships of 
travel. But travel will soon be made very easy 
for him, and a great influx of the floating popula- 
tion is being prepared for. In the next five 
years several large hotels are to be erected at va- 
rious points of interest throughout Palestine, and 


114 PALESTINE AWAKE 


hotel organizations are making plans accordingly. 

We cannot but be impressed with the fact 
that Palestine opens up a resort center that will 
beckon the whole world. There is no antiquity 
greater, for it contains the history and the land- 
marks of nearly all peoples. Those who know 
it only in song and story can go into the midst of 
It. 

Many travelers have feared that the railroads 
and highways and new-world activities may take 
away the charm of the ancient place and its 
unique pictures of the old life. As to the holy 
spots, they will never be effaced; the whole world 
will see to that. But how far better it is to bring 
sanitation into the home of the native where it is 
practically unknown, and to lift his burdens by 
modern methods. Far better this kind of mis- 
sionary spirit than one which holds forth on 
charming pictures of the life that was normal 
two thousand years ago but which has outgrown 
its usefulness in a later age, when things can be 


made easier for the people in it. 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE PRIMITIVE NATIVE AND THE TRIALS OF 
WELFARE WORK 


LONG the road to Jericho, I stopped at 
A a picturesque spot to take a snap-shot of a 
couple of Bedouin girls who were carrying on their 
heads great earthenware vases filled with water. 
For the only way of transporting water is to carry 
it from springs or wells or some central spot. 
The method has not changed in two thousand 
years except for the new pipe and the spigot at- 
tached to the spring. As these girls came along 
the road, I took out my camera and smiled 
at them, little dreaming what would happen. 
They dropped their burdens and began to run 
away, screaming and crying. Although our 
driver called to them in their language, not to be 
afraid, there was no chance of reassuring them. 
They would not come back for their vases until 


we were a long distance away. 
115 


116 PALESTINE AWAKE 


Fancy then what it would mean to try to do 
uplift work with such human material. We are 
all accustomed to drives and social meetings and 
the work of helping the poor. We do not need 
to be educated as to the importance of welfare 
work. But such is not the case in Palestine. 
The people can understand why money should be 
given to them, and they need no instruction what- 
ever in the art of begging. But to be taught how 
to live, how to bring up their babies, how to avert 
disease, how to keep clean—these things were vir- 
tually unknown among the poorer classes of Pal- 
estine before the war. 

When they got sick in Palestine they tried to 
doctor themselves in crude and primitive ways, or 
they went to a hospital where they fared little 
better. If they survived, well and good; if not, 
they just died. No concerted effort had been 
made, no method devised, to teach the people the 
prevention of disease or the care of themselves 
or their families. The struggle was to exist 
rather than to live; and it was only the climate, 
the invigorating health-giving powers of the sun, 





SYUaMYOM AAVATAM LNVANI HVSSVGVH LSANIA aNO AO dNnoOwdd V 





TRIALS OF WELFARE WORK 117 


that saved these people throughout the centuries, 
not any knowledge of caring for themselves. 

‘Malaria and trachoma and such diseases have 
accordingly been prevalent. I venture to say 
that among the poorest of the natives almost 
every other one has something wrong with his 
eyes. When the war produced the medical unit, 
which came from America, it marked the begin- 
ning of real welfare work in Palestine, which 
to-day is going forward at a rapid pace. 

The chief work is being accomplished by 
the Hadassah (Women’s Zionist Organization), 
of which Miss Henrietta Szold of New York is 
head. It has been made possible partly through 
the gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Straus. The 
money is used for installation and equipment. 

I visited the welfare stations. To reach them 
you must go through the narrow streets where 
you will find the hovels of the pauper, and where 
the miserere is sung in the hearts of the people 
almost day and night—suffering souls whose 
daily grind is the mere business of hand-to-mouth 


existence. 


118 PALESTINE AWAKE 


There is no tragedy so tragic as that of the 
poor at Jerusalem. There is no Ghetto in all 
the world suffering so silently as this one. 
Hearts of stone would be made to bleed at the 
sight that greets you from these holes in the rock 
that are called homes, where four and five and six 
people live, move, and have their being in one 
room. 

So through this medley of misery, through 
winding archways and on streets where the Naz- 
arene trod, we were finally led into a little oasis 
in the desert of destitution, the welfare station, 
clean and orderly with its white and blue paint. 
You breathe a sigh of relief. Here was some- 
thing that would faintly penetrate the dark holes 
and give light to poverty-stricken people. As [ 
stood there I watched hundreds of small bottles 
of infants’ food being prepared and given to 
mothers. I saw the babies being weighed, care- 
fully examined by doctors and nurses. I saw 
the smiles of ill-fed mothers bringing their under- 
nourished anemic children to this human haven. 
I felt that a big start had been made. 

“And this was not so easy,” said Miss Szold, 


TRIALS OF WELFARE WORK 119 


who was with us. “It was very difficult to ex- 
plain to these mothers that their children’s dis- 
eases were due to themselves, their own lack of 
knowledge of caring for children. We tried to 
teach them how to mix the food, but as yet the 
task has proved almost impossible. For so many 
centuries they have known so little of cleanliness 
and present-day methods of living that only when 
they saw the results in the children did they have 
faith and belief in what we were teaching them. 
So we are still preparing the infants’ food, but 
gradually and constantly the tremendous impor- 
tance of caring for the baby is being realized 
and the mothers are responding.” 

I visited another welfare station where 40 per 
cent of those who appear are Arabs. ‘The stipula- 
tion that the Arabs should be cared for was made 
a condition of the Straus donation. ‘This station 
too, is conducted by the Hadassah. Seven such 
baby stations are now in operation. 

I went to the homes of some of these poor 
people who had been taught how to keep their 
places clean: even their one room was spotless. 
So that the task has not been insurmountable. 


120 PALESTINE AWAKE 


The people can be educated to better ways of liv- 
ing. They can be urged to give their children 
better opportunities than they themselves had. 
America has done much in this respect, but there 
is still endless work to do. 

But this is not the only welfare work that is 
conducted by the Hadassah, for it maintains four 
hospitals located in Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, and 
Safed, all of which have dispensaries and lab- 
oratories. The Jerusalem hospital also has a 
nurses’ training school for fifty pupils. The 
course of studies, theoretical and practical, covers 
three years and is conducted in Hebrew. Fifty 
nurses have already been graduated. The di- 
plomas are countersigned by the Department of 
Public Health of the Palestine government. 
From their ranks, the organization draws its hos- 
pital nursing staff and its infant welfare nurses. 
All of these hospitals are supplied with modern 
equipment, but they operate under difficult con- 
ditions. They do not have sufficient electricity, 
and water is still lacking. 

Water, by the way, is one of the chief prob- 
lems of Jerusalem. Imagine a whole population 


TRIALS OF WELFARE WORK 121 


living on rain-water only, according to a system 
that has obtained for centuries. Everybody has 
a cistern, and the poor buy their water and carry 
it in tins to their homes. And when there is a 
drouth as there was in 1924 it is necessary for the 
government to send four trains daily, loaded with 
tanks of water, from Ludd. The water problem 
will have to be solved by the government itself, 
and engineers are already working on a plan to 
harness the Jordan and pipe the water to Jerusa- 
lem; it is an engineering feat that, according to 
experts, can be accomplished. 

But to return to welfare work. Clinics have 
been established in all the towns that contain 
Jewish population and in forty agricultural 
settlements. The Hadassah has also undertaken 
the hygienic supervision of more than fifteen 
thousand children in the Jewish schoals. A sys- 
tematic campaign against trachoma has been or- 
ganized, and arrangements have been made for 
the examination of the immigrants and the san- 
itary supervision of immigration camps. 

Clinics play an important part in the treat- 
ment of malaria, not only among Jews but also 


122 PALESTINE AWAKE 


among Arabs; in several clinics like those at 
Hebron, Beth-Shean, Ramlah, the majority of the 
patients are Moslems and Christians. A vigorous 
campaign against malaria has been conducted by 
the Hadassah. Five fully equipped laboratories 
have been established in various centers, and 
these have performed thousands of blood examin- 
ations. 

The Department of School Hygiene has been 
established by the Hadassah. A physician with 
thirty assistants was appointed and particular 
attention given to malaria. All the pupils are 
examined twice a year. A child infected with 
malaria receives intensive treatment for two 
months in a special children’s clinic. He is then 
placed under the supervision of the school doctor 
who examines the pupil from time to time. The 
school doctor and the teachers provide health 
lectures for the children. Health weeks are being 
promoted through the Galilee colonies with 
lantern-slides and other equipment. Penny 
lunches have been instituted. Prenatal and post- 
natal care is another activity of the organization. 


Its educational work is being developed, and 


TRIALS OF WELFARE WORK 123 


the government is aware of the excellent results 
obtained. Miss Szold says: “We deem it a 
pleasant duty to point out the value of the great 
help given to us by the Department of Health 
of the government of Palestine. The Depart- 
ment of Health has always taken into considera- 
tion the unique and difficult conditions under 
which we work and on many occasions has given 
us worthy aid.” 

The Hadassah also places its laboratories at 
the service of the public hospitals. It distributes 
_ linen and drugs free of charge to many charitable 
institutions. Mosquito-nets and quinine are 
furnished to those settlements which cannot pay 
for these necessities. 

The cost of this big enterprise of welfare is 
small indeed in comparison to what is actually 
being done. From January 1, 1922, to January 
1, 1925, the cash collections amounted to 
$633,221.64, with materials valued at $149,700.- 
11. The money was collected in America by 
23,500 members, the greater number of them 
being in New York. 


CHAPTER XIV 


PALESTINE LEADING OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE 
ELIMINATION OF ORPHAN ASYLUMS 


EXPECTED to find orphan-asylums galore, 
| for from all over the world came more 
and more orphaus to Jerusalem (and I knew 
they presented a tremendous problem); to my 
utter astonishment I found the conditions very 
different. 

Although there were four thousand homeless 
orphans when the war closed, only one thousand 
now remain in Palestine. The other children 
have become absorbed in the population and are 
being cared for in homes of relatives and foster- 
parents. 

It was pleasant to learn that the most ad- 
vanced methods of caring for children have been 
adopted in this oldest of countries, so that six 


hundred children are cared for in the homes of 
I24 


ADVNVHdaO VINNOAIVA LV MAS OL LHOOVI STaI9 








ORPHAN ASYLUMS 125 


their own mothers or relatives or other good 
people, and only two hundred have found their 
way to orphan-asylums. 

I discussed the matter with S. Moheif, direc- 
tor of child care activities in Jerusalem, who for 
ten years has labored in the cause of the children. 
This work is supported mainly by the Joint Dis- 
tribution Committee, and Sophie Burger is the 
executive director of the Palestine Orphan 
Committee. 

Mr. Mosheif said: “Oh, yes, we realize more 
than anything else the importance of placing 
children in homes and giving them community 
life. We have a staff of home visitors who fol- 
low up the children whom we board out in the 
homes. ‘They make frequent rounds of inspection 
and are received as devoted house friends and as 
advisers on family problems. We follow the 
children up until they become self-supporting. 
We make every effort to see that the one-room 
Jerusalem dwelling has plenty of air and sun- 
shine, and we insist on an adequate standard of 
cleanliness both in the home and for the children. 

“It costs us approximately a hundred dollars 


126 PALESTINE AWAKE 


a year to keep a half-orphan in a home with its 
own mother, but this does not include medical 
care and clothing. The Hadassah furnishes 
wearing-apparel. We pay for the text-books 
and school supplies of the children, however, and 
when children need special care we provide special 
food such as milk and eggs daily. We have an 
educational supervisor who looks after the child’s 
advancement in school.” 

There are trade-schools established in Jerusa- 
lem and Tiberias that enable the girls to take up 
sewing in its various branches. ‘There are also 
two country institutions run on the cottage system 
where the girls are taught the lighter forms of 
farm work, housekeeping, cooking, laundering, 
and sewing. These schools are located at Meier 
Chfeye and the children’s village, Givat Hamo- 
reh, and they accommodate one hundred pupils. 
These courses are followed by an intensive study 
in infants’ care, which makes the girls competent 
to do the women’s share of the work in the Home- 
land and meets a crying need. 

The problem of children, of course, is much 


more serious in Palestine than elsewhere. Be- 


ORPHAN ASYLUMS 127 


cause the homes are of such low standard, it is 
difficult to put the child where he will be happy 
and enjoy real home life. 

I visited one of the few orphan-asylums in Jeru- 
salem. The surroundings, general conditions, 
and environment are better than in any orphan- 
asylum I have ever seen in Europe. Considerable 
of the work of these institutions is done by the 
children themselves, and this should be reduced 
as much as possible, but the general atmosphere 
is a happy one. 

As far as child labor is concerned, there is no 
country in the world that needs proper legisla- 
tion so much as Palestine. I have never seen 
such deplorable conditions as prevail there. It 
is ‘the children who are the real burden-bearers. 
On the streets of Jerusalem, at any time of the 
day, you will see them carrying on their shoulders 
water and other heavy loads heavy enough to 
stagger any grown-up. They undergo many 
hardships, and their lives are spent in hard labor. 
Child-labor laws are indeed badly needed, for the 
child has no way of helping himself and has to 
accept all that is heaped upon him. 


128 PALESTINE AWAKE 


A start has been made in the establishment of a 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
Perhaps a similar Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children will be formed; or, better 
still, the government may take hold. The an- 
imal society has been doing excellent work in 
teaching natives that they must not abuse their 
beasts. Sharp-pointed instruments, with which 
donkeys and camels have been prodded, have been 
confiscated in many instances and the culprits 
have been punished. It is small wonder, though, 
that the native is surprised every day at the new 
ideas that have come to Palestine, and at the 
demand of the humanitarian treatment of man 
and beast. 

But to return to the welfare work: I saw a 
training school where young girl orphans were 
taught trades in the pleasantest surroundings, 
a school that has been established with American 
money. Many of these girls have no relatives 
anywhere, but they will soon be self-supporting 
and making their own way in the world. 

Here in the Old World they are solving the 
problems of the young dependent child in a man- 


ORPHAN ASYLUMS 129 


ner that might well be copied by the New World. 
The high commissioner is being urged to appoint 
a commission to study the needs of the children 
and to promote a country-wide program in their 
behalf; for Palestine realizes as does no other 
country, that the development of any nation 
must begin with its children. 

As for the old people, the United Aged Home, 
known as the Moshav Sekenim, is the largest of 
its kind in Palestine. It was founded in 1880, 
and was at the start merely a tea-kitchen; but 
with the monetary support it has received, mainly 
American, it has developed very rapidly, until 
now it is the largest and best of its kind in this 
part of the Old World. It houses the poor and 
destitute aged of the Holy Land, and in many 
cases refugees from abroad also find shelter there. 
They obtain spacious rooms and good and com- 
fortable beds and are made to feel welcome and 
at home. 

The United Aged Home at present consists of 
several large buildings situated on the road to 
Motza, at the fork of the Jaffa Road to Hakerem. 
It is built on a plot of ground of more than forty 


130 PALESTINE AWAKE 


thousand square yards, and it is surrounded with 
fruit and flower gardens. ‘There are one hun- 
dred and fifty spacious bedrooms, of which 
twenty-five were built in the last two years, and a 
dining-room and an office with a valuable library. 
There are three large synagogues for study and 
prayer, a Russian bath, two hospitals for patients 
and invalids, a pharmacy, and a number of rooms 
for housekeeping. The water is supplied by three 
large cisterns and fountains. At present there 
are three hundred inmates of both sexes in this 
institution. 

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Miller of New York, 
during their last visit, gave twelve thousand 
dollars to the home, and this made possible the 
construction of another large building supplying 
additional accommodations. 

Among the distinguished benefactors to the in- 
stitution is Lady Samuel, who is a patron of the 
home. ‘The visitors’ book is a striking testimony 
to the many illustrious personages who have 
visited the country and the institution, and who 
have taken an interest in the work that is being 
done. 


CHAPTER XV 
THE LABOR SITUATION 


SURVEY of the labor situation in Pales- 
A tine is being made by a_labor-union 
commission. Here are some of the results of 
their investigation: 

The first “champions of labor,’ who set out 
with much enthusiasm, found their greatest ob- 
stacle in the Arab’s low standard of living; they 
had to compete with cheap Arab labor, of min- 
imum consumption and low cultural standards. 
Nevertheless, they undertook this difficult task 
and consented to decrease their own needs and 
to suffer the deprivations and hardships attending 
life in the colonies. And they succeeded. 

The cost of establishing a group of one hun- 
dred Judean colonists on approximately twenty- 
two acres of land is estimated as follows: Land 
$2750; furnishings, $750; animals, wagons, and 
implements, approximately $3375; making a 


I31 


132 PALESTINE AWAKE 


total of $6875. The investment capital, it is 
found, is amortized within ten years, and it has 
meanwhile given employment to about one hun- 
dred workers. So that the cost per workman for 
capital is estimated at $350. The entire debt, 
however, is paid off in the seventh year of the 
existence of the colony. The maintenance of the 
individual worker on about one acre of land 
brings the total cost only to $475, and his family 
begins to repay the cost of the land in the second 
year and completes payment in the eighth year. 

These figures show how carefully every part of 
the colonization program is planned in advance. 
Besides, the results continually checked up so that 
losses may be stopped before they assume large 
proportions. The settlement of the people on 
the land is perhaps nowhere done more econom- 
ically than in Palestine; it is an object-lesson 
in “back to the land” at the lowest cost. 

The colonist’s whole problem is one of expe- 
rience. Ina certain grove in Petah-Tikvah three 
sets of laborers were hoeing. They all worked 
on the same type of soil and at the same wage- 
scale, but they were of three grades: experienced 


INU SV ee sod INESINING Deo sk CE en 








THE .LABOR SITUATION 133 


workers, workers employed thirty-eight days in 
the colony, new workers, employed only one week. 
When the work was.completed the result was that 
the experienced men had earned $1.40 a day; 
those who had worked thirty-eight days had 
earned seventy-five cents a day; the new workers 
had earned thirty-three cents a day. 

The period of training of the new worker for 
agricultural work is about four months. In the 
first month his work is below the average. In the 
second he earns his own daily requirements, and 
during the last month thereafter his work grad- 
ually rises to the average level, so that later on 
he covers the loss sustained during the first month, 
provided there has been uninterrupted employ- 
ment and no loss of time through illness. 

The best training seems to be found among the 
immigrants from Bessarabia, Germany, Czecho- 
slovakia, and, to some extent, Lithuania. But un- 
fortunately not all who received training abroad 
enter the colonies. 

The loss incurred by the individual during the 
initial period is made up by his greater efficiency 
and consequent higher wage thereafter. If the 


134 PALESTINE AWAKE 


worker leaves the colony after a short time, or if 
he leaves agricultural work altogether, the loss is 
not made up at all. He is most likely to leave 
during the first months of his stay in the haburah 
(colony), before he has adapted himself to the 
work and while he is still a loss to the camp. 
The following figures from one of the smallest 
colonies, Maabar, illustrate this: Immigrants to 
the number of forty-seven remained for a period 
of one or two months, four for three months, two 
for four months, eight for five months, four for 
six months, four for seven months, three for eight 
months, four for nine months, five for ten months, 
and thirty-one remained from eleven to seventeen 
months. The percentage of members working 
more than two months is 57; more than four 
months, 49.43. In the smaller camps the immi- 
grant seems to hold on longest. For example, in 
twelve small colonies comprising 154 members 
only seven left during a period of ten months. 
Thus the small organization seems to thrive better 
than the larger one. 

It is well known that the problem of securing 
work for women is a very serious one, because the 


THE LABOR SITUATION 135 


native farmer does not believe that they can do 
agricultural work, especially those varieties of 
work which women have never done, such as hoe- 
ing and digging. ‘The lighter work, such as fer- 
tilization, pruning, binding of trees, is not avail- 
able throughout the year. These conditions make 
it difficult for the woman worker to get into the — 
various branches of field work. This is why co- 
operative units for women have been established, 
as well as training-schools. 

Men workers had to resort to the labor organ- 
ization in order to force themselves into the larger 
colonies for purposes of advancement. The 
women workers will have to go through the same 
channel. Indeed since the organization of the la- 
bor group, the number of women workers has in- 
creased, partly in domestic work—kitchen, sew- 
ing, laundry—and partly in field work, especially 
in the production of tobacco—nursery, picking, 
and so on. 

Soon this situation will adjust itself and 
woman will be working side by side with man 
everywhere. Some of the small camps have made 
provision for extensive absorption of women 


136 PALESTINE AWAKE 


workers. As a result, small groups of women 
were employed, ranging from 28 to 45 per 
cent of the total. Women farm workers will 
probably soon be received on a complete equality 
with men. 


CHAPTER XVI 


BEAUTY PARLORS AND CABARETS BY THE OLD 
WALLS OF JERUSALEM 


ITHIN a few feet of the hotel where 

\ \ this chapter is being written—the St. 
John—is the church inclosing the tomb of the 
Holy Sepulcher of Christ, and while I view its cir- 
cular dome the muezzin of a near-by mosque is 
calling the Mohammedans to prayer in a high, 
singsong tenor voice. Within a few minutes’ 
walk is the great Jaffa Gate, which brings you into 
the Old City, where this hotel is located on Cal- 
vary Hill. The Tower of David is close by, and 
to each of these places I can walk in five minutes. 
Below me in the street I hear the tinkle of the 
camel caravan, and the bray of the donkey under 
the great load he is bearing. I walk through the 
narrow Street of David, as old as the very hills, 
passing by flowing-robed natives whose customs 

\ 137 


138 PALESTINE AWAKE 


and methods have not changed these many hun- 
dreds of years. 

One constantly marvels at the primitive life 
here, and yet as I go by a coffee-house I hear a 
phonograph pouring forth Arabic chants, and 
then—then— | 

I go to where I have been invited to dinner and 
to dance, only a few minutes away and in the 
midst of this ancient scene. And as I approach, 
I can hardly believe my ears—the strains they are 
playing—the great American jazz. Ah, yes, it is 
here, in full swing. Everybody ’s doing it. 

A regular cabaret is this place, out in the open 
with trees and lanterns. On one side of the in- 
closure is the ancient wall of Jerusalem itself. 
Ah, me, if this wall could but speak, I wonder 
what it would say about the whirling mass, tod- 
dling to the tunes of Yankeeland. If I could just 
forget I am in Jerusalem, I could readily believe 
I was in some open-air garden cabaret on Forty- 
eighth Street, New York. Just as there, one eats, 
drinks, and dances jazz—between courses—and 
then more jazz. 

And this does not obtain only in the public 


BEAUTY PARLORS AND CABARETS 139 


hotel. I visited some of the homes, and there too 
people are jazzing continuously. Nobody dances 
the old dances any more, not here in the Holy 
Land. And when you are entertained at home of 
an evening, the first thing you hear is, “Oh, let ’s 
have a little jazz,” and the phonograph is turned 
on, just as in our own American homes. In fact, 
they are jazz mad. The latest steps, the last 
word in Terpsichore, have reached these ancient 
habitations. Teachers are making money at it. 
And the motion-picture craze is in full swing 
here. Only a few days ago they marveled at 
Charlie Chaplin in “The Kid.” Although it took 
a couple of ‘years to get here, it was none the less 
welcome, as was ““Humoresque,” the Jewish story, 
which drew the crowd just as it did in America. 
The Arabs, they too come to the moving-picture 
house. They cannot believe it is just pictures, 
and so, when the villain starts to pursue, they 
make a pell-mell get-away to the doors, unmind- 
ful of the people or chairs they throw down in 
their escape. But soon, soon they will get over it. 
Strange indeed and most amazing how readily 
this oldest of countries adapts itself to the newest 


140 PALESTINE AWAKE 


attractions or distractions of the dear New World. 

And the girls—well, they have their beauty- 
parlors. Their nails are being manicured and 
their hair marcelled—and, yes, the permanent 
wave has become a vital institution even in Pales- 
tine. While it is all new to them and joyfully 
so, it is welcome, most welcome indeed. 

A charming mother who has reared her daugh- 
ters in Jerusalem confided to me the other day: 
“Dear me! What with the moving picture and 
the jazz my daughters have quit their embroidery 
and sewing. There is not enough time to do it 
all, and the thing they love the best is that which 
they do. So it is jazz and pictures and manicur- 
ing and all the other new-fangled business. I 
used to wish they would leave Jerusalem alone to 
go its old way, but somehow I am getting used to 
it, and sometimes, although I do not tell the girls, 
I feel like taking a few steps myself.’ Perhaps 
the future will find her joining one of the dancing- 
classes. 

But along with this, considerable culture is 
being developed. A real opera company is in full 
swing and doing beautiful work, Iam told. Who 





G WALL 


NCIENT WAILIN 


EA 


dkiat 


» 
¢ 

4 
iu 
, 

% 


> 


mg 





BEAUTY PARLORS AND CABARETS 141 


knows? We may yet have a Jerusalem Opera 
Company visit us in New York. 

A music school has been established at the sug- 
gestion of Sir Ronald Storrs, governor of Jerusa- 
lem. The first plan was to have it a national in- 
stitution, but later it was decided to promote it as 
a Jewish one, since the majority of its pupils were 
Jewish. The governing body turned it over to 
the care of the Education Department of the 
Zionist Executive, and the school has adopted 
Hebrew as the language of instruction. 

Since its foundation in 1919, over four hun- 
dred pupils have received instruction, and a good 
number of the pupils have gone on with their 
studies at the large conservatories in Europe. As 
broad a course of study is given as is possible with 
the limited funds at hand. The latest innovation 
is a children’s class in ear-training, rhythmic cul- 
ture, and musical appreciation. There is a 
chamber-music class and, among other subjects, 
piano instruction. Violin, singing, theory of 
music, and harmony are taught. 

The school has been very fortunate recently in 
receiving from Benno Moiseiwitch, the famous 


142 PALESTINE AWAKE 


European pianist, an endowment for a piano 
scholarship at the school. Others supporting the 
school include Miss Myra Hess, who has become 
a life-member, and Mrs. Isaac Harris of Boston, 


who has also given a scholarship. 


CHAPTER XVII 


I GO TO JERICHO, AND AH ME, IT IS A HOT PLACE 


E journeyed to Jericho one fine morning, 

\ \ arising at five o’clock. It should have 

been two hours earlier. If you have an enemy 

and want him to suffer, send him to Jericho in 

August or September. It is the hottest place on 

earth, for it is twelve hundred feet below sea-level. 
Here you can wade in the Dead Sea. 

I was accompanied by the governor of Jericho, 
Ruhi Bey Abd-el-Had, a very fine type of Arab. 
And imagine if you can: the governor and a friend 
were going off to spend an afternoon shooting 
grouse and partridge in a torrid heat that would 
seem to be no worse at the equator. 

It is truly a picturesque spot, but how anxious 
you are to get away from it. Yet in the winter, 
I am told, it is the wonder-spot of Palestine. 
Within an hour from Jerusalem, with its winter 

143 


144 PALESTINE AWAKE 


coolness, you can come to a pleasant summer heat 
in Jericho. 

It is here that a great winter resort is being 
planned by one of the men that were with us on 
the journey. He is a physician and means to es- 
tablish a sanitorium for rheumatism and other ail- 
ments requiring sun-given properties. 

The governor has great hopes for his country. 
“The Jews,” he said, “have done much to bring 
the tourists and those who are interested in the 
development of property, and we are looking for- 
ward to remarkable progress.” He told me that 
several scientists were working on the water of the 
Dead Sea, which they think may contain valuable 
chemicals. (By the way, it is almost impossible 
to sink in the Dead Sea, it is so heavily weighted 
with salt. And for the same reason nothing can 
live in it.) The activities of the chemists are 
being watched with a great deal of interest. Con- 
siderable attention is being attracted by the inves- 
tigation of the Standard Oil Company as to the 
existence of oil in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. 
If oil is found, it will prove a very great boom to 


JERICHO IS A HOT PLACE 145 


Palestine and Syria, where there are no coal- 
mines; it will mean as much even as the utiliza- 
tion of the potential water-power of Palestine for 
irrigation and electric purposes. 

Electricity will do much to develop Palestine. 
The Rutenberg scheme has for its object the utili- 
zation of the great natural tank of the Lake of 
Tiberias, and the considerable difference of level 
between the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers, in order 
to generate perhaps as much as one hundred thou- 
sand horse-power of electric energy. The reali- 
zation of the Rutenberg project will provide 
enough cheap electric power for the railways, for 
local industries, and for domestic purposes, it Is 
hoped. 

By means of irrigation, not only will the crops 
be increased four or five fold, as compared with 
non-irrigated areas, but there will be a guarantee 
against frequent drouth, which spells ruin in this 
country. With these developments ahead, Jeri- 
cho is looked upon as a place of great promise. 
But, ah, me, Jericho is a very hot place! We 
went up to the Springs of Elisha to take a dip and 


146 PALESTINE AWAKE 


get momentary relief, but alas! even this water 
was hot and muddy. Small wonder the prophet 
had to sweeten this water, it was so bitter and un- 


drinkable. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


BEN YEHUDA, WHO SPENT FORTY YEARS REVIVING 
A DEAD LANGUAGE 


suburbs of Jerusalem, I visited a home that 
is destined to become a shrine, the home of the 
man who resurrected a dead language and made it 
an official language, the only achievement of its 


A T Talpioth, which is one of the garden city 


kind in history. 

Hundreds of years ago the Jews ceased to em- 
ploy Hebrew as the medium of communicating 
their every-day thought. In Palestine, accord- 
ing to the returns of the last census, virtually 
every Jew claims Hebrew as his mother-tongue; 
every Jewish school uses the language as the me- 
dium of instruction. 

The change has come about in the startingly 
brief space of the few years since the war, and the 
force which brought about the change was the 

147 


148 PALESTINE AWAKE 


persistent efforts and personality of one man, 
Eliezer Ben Yehudah, who as a pioneer of Pales- 
tine worked forty years to achieve his goal—re- 
viving the old words of the prophets and peoples 
to be used by a newer generation. 

He is dead, but his work goeson. And I talked 
with her who is completing the job her husband 
began, Mrs. Ben Yehudah. She told me the story 
—a tale replete with suffering, privations, hard- 
ship, a spiritual life which the whole family lived 
to accomplish what the head set out to do. It 
is the same old story that follows in the wake of 
him who would blaze a new path in the scheme of 
things. 

“In order to educate the masses he began the 
arduous work of compiling a dictionary,” she told 
me. When he died three years ago he had com- 
pleted all but four letters of the alphabet. Ac- 
cording to the estimates it will be seven years be- 
fore the work is finished. Mrs. Ben Yehudah has 
set herself to do this task. 

Perhaps there are no more picturesque figures 
in the history of Palestine than are presented by 


REVIVING A DEAD LANGUAGE 149 


this family. The story told me by them is one 
that could fill many volumes. 

“As I look back at it now I marvel at the holy 
determination that dominated my husband, and 
which he inspired in every member of the family,” 
said this little woman, whose hair is gray, but 
whose black eyes sparkle with the gleam of youth. 

“His theory, which subsequently became the 
heart and soul of the Zionist movement, was this,” 
she said. “Where formerly the Jews came to 
Palestine to die—the old Jews—merely because 
of their common wish to be buried in the Home- 
land soil, Mr. Ben Yehudah felt that young blood 
should come here. The Jews must come to live 
and plant the banner of Judaism, not merely to 
abide here with the thought of spending their last 
days in the Holy Land, but to accept it as a cul- 
tural development and a constructive achieve- 
ment—a place in which truly to live, move, and 
have being. 

“‘And how he was scoffed at, laughed at, when 
he first began to insist that only Hebrew must be 
spoken, not the jargon Yiddish, which is a com- 


150 PALESTINE AWAKE 


bination of all the various tongues of the nations 
of the world which the Jewish people have ac- 
quired through the centuries. 

“He insisted first on Hebrew alone to be spoken 
among his own family. He wrote about it. He 
started a newspaper, and although he had little or 
no money, it was a miracle how he kept going, 
pounding away at one principle all the time: 
Hebrew, the dead language, must be revived. 

“Then he realized that the people must have 
some means of learning it—and thus began the 
arduous task of finding words, here, there, every- 
where—words of the old Hebrew to make up his 
dictionary. He worked sometimes eighteen hours 
a day; but no matter how laborious, it was a work 
of love tohim. Each of us bore along with him 
and helped. How glad J am now, because it wiil 
soon be finished.” 

Mrs. Ben Yehudah then went on to tell how 
misunderstood her husband was in the beginning 
because he insisted on setting religion apart from 
nationality. The two had heretofore been irre- 
concilable. “He was even stoned and thrust into 
prison,”’ she said sadly. “But he gloried in it be- 


REVIVING A DEAD LANGUAGE 151 


cause it brought the attention of the Jewish world 
to what he was trying to do.” 

And so to-day on all the signs and stations in 
Palestine, wherever there is printing, official or 
otherwise, one of the languages is always pure 
Hebrew. No matter where you go, in the agri- 
cultural regions or the cities, in town or country, 
up hill or down dale, everybody speaks Hebrew, 
every Jewish man, woman, and child. 

So proud are all the Jews of this achievement, 
which has meant so much in the creation of a na- 
tional Jewish life with an official language, that 
every meeting is conducted in Hebrew; and if 
any other language is spoken it 1s immediately 
interpreted to the assemblage into Hebrew. 

Children are reprimanded if they do not speak 
the Hebrew tongue. The other day I heard a 
little one say to her mother—a youngster who 
came from New York; “Mother, when we get to 
our home | will explain to you in English what 
the children said to me. I am ashamed to speak 
English in front of them because they say I must 
speak nothing else but Hebrew.” 

And this is the spirit that has pervaded the 


12 PALESTINE AWAKE 


whole country: the Hebrew world, Hebrew 
thought, Hebrew language—universally  ac- 
cepted. And so this frail little mother and her 
son Ehud are completing the alphabet. Three 
charming daughters adorn their home, and all are 
imbued with the same purpose. 

And the oldest son is the most prominent Jew- 
ish journalist in all of Palestine. He is the pub- 
lisher of the “Palestine Weekly” as well as of the 
daily “Palestine Bulletin.” His pen-name is 
Ben Avi, which means “son of my father.” But 
that is another interesting story. 

Truly this is a family that has suffered depriva- 
tion but has helped to contribute to the world 
something worth while, something that will be 
handed down from father to son, as an example of 
what an ideal can develop with the will behind it 
to bear until the task is accomplished. 


CHAPTER XIX 
WHERE HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL 


iL was at Balfouria, one of the colonies re- 
I cently established by the American Zion 
Commonwealth, that I found the true spirit of the 
settler family which is so prevalent throughout 
Palestine. 

A young girl of thirteen, boasting of seven sis- 
ters, had seemingly imbibed the wisdom of her 
ancestors and the spirit of patriotism for her newly 
adopted country; she was a remarkable example 
of what is going on in the minds of the young. 

I talked with her. “Oh, yes,’ she said, “we 
loved Chester, Pennsylvania, where we came from, 
but this is our home. We did not like it at first, 
because we had to learn a new language and go 
to school with children that we could n’t talk to. 
But we quickly learned how to play with them, 
and now things are so much easier and happier. 
Of course the camels and the donkeys amused us, 

153 


154 PALESTINE AWAKE 


but now we have become accustomed to them. 
We miss the motion-picture show, but as soon as 
our colony grows we will get that too. We have 
to be patient, and everything will come. This 
our teacher tells us, and my mother and father. 
In the meantime we are doing our bit to help make 
the Homeland.” — 

“And are you happy?’ I asked. 

“Oh, very happy,” was the quick response. 
“We had it hard at first, living in only two rooms 
—all of us. But now we have this lovely house 
that father built. And oh, these beautiful moun- 
tains to look at all the time! No, I would not 
want to go back to Chester. It is so good here.” 
And she went off, calling to a little child in a near- 
by house. 

And when I spoke to the father I knew at once 
where she got her ideas and ideals. 

“Don’t you sometimes wish ‘you were back in 
dear old America, where everything is developed 
and you don’t have to do any pioneering?” 

“No, indeed,” he answered with conviction. 
“It is some job pioneering with eight children, but 
I would not exchange places with anybody. I 


WHERE HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL © 155 


feel that I am doing something here besides merely 
making my living and rearing my children. 
Somebody has to do it, and if I can contribute 
eight young people to the cause of the Homeland, 
I will consider my life well worth hving. I 
brought here the money I had saved all my life 
and invested it in a hotel, a little store, and a few 
houses, and here I intend to remain and die.” 

Close by I visited the home of a very old man, 
his daughter, and her husband. They came from 
Russia, and although their house was a little 
stucco four-room one, nobody could have been 
happier. 


3 


“Why? Because here is freedom,” cried the 
old man. “Here I have no persecution, no fear 
that somebody is going to knock on our door some 
day and demand some of our possessions, as was 
the case in the miserable country from whence we 
came. Our lives were not our own. Here we 
have a chance, and when this colony grows we will 
all be working and making our own way, proud 
that while we are personally getting creature com- 
forts that we did not have at home, we too are 


contributing our work in building the Homeland.”’ 


156 PALESTINE AWAKE 


One after another I talked with these families, 
and the same spirit prevailed everywhere—the 
willingness to go through any kind of hardships 
because they see light ahead—a new hope, a new 
country, a new life. How many of them remain 
after a few years will be discussed later on. 

But to return to what these colonies are actu- 
ally accomplishing. In Balfouria, as in the other 
colonies, the first task was to drain the swamps by 
modern underground drainage and utilizing the 
water sources that created the swamps for irriga- 
tion. Roads were constructed so as to make the 
territory accessible and to connect it with the im- 
portant highways and with railway stations. A 
modern water system was installed which sup- 
plied the temporary farm-houses. 

The first group of settlers arrived toward the 
end of 1922, and the American Zion Common- 
wealth built for each family a house and a barn 
and provided financial assistance for farm equip- 
ment. The money advanced by the Common- 
wealth will be returned by the settlers in the 
course of a few years with interest, so that those 


who invested money in the Commonwealth will in 


WHERE HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL i157 


time have their capital and interest returned to 
them. 

To-day Balfouria is one of the largest and best 
equipped colonies in the Emek Valley. It ts 
largely due to the development of Balfouria that 
a number of new colonies have sprung up in 
the surrounding territory and are gradually 
developing. 

Herzlia (named after Herzl, the founder of the 
Zionist movement) is a new colony established by 
the Commonwealth during 1924. It is situated 
along the sea-coast, about seven miles north of 
Tel Aviv. The area comprises about four thou- 
sand acres, and it has been divided into two sec- 
tions. One part, which is along the sea-shore, 
will eventually evolve into a coast resort and 
town development, while the other, which has 
very fertile soil, will be worked as an intensive 
agricultural settlement. 

As in Balfouria, the Commonwealth is improv- 
ing the land by draining it of swamps, installing 
modern water systems, and building a road, which 
connects the colony with Tel Aviv. The first 
colonists established themselves in the spring of 


158 PALESTINE AWAKE 


1925, and they are engaged in building their 
homes and equipping their farms. 

It was in Herzlia that I saw young women 
working in the ditches, connecting pipes, using 
the tools of the plumber and the sewer-digger, 
which J had never seen women use before. One is 
fascinated at the deftness with which their small 
fingers work at this heavy labor. Eight hours a 
day they remain in these ditches, working side by 
side with the men. When they leave off it ts 
with satisfaction that they have been able to do 
the work of the stronger sex. It was here also 
that I met a family from Tennessee, Levine by 
name, who had made a crude shack which looked 
like a charming little home in the South with 
vines and creepers all around—and this within a 
year. They are living in this abode temporarily 
until their new house is completed. This man 
has charge of the digging of wells, and he pointed 
proudly to the machinery that had just been re- 
ceived from the United States. Nineteen lan- 
guages are spoken in this colony, all merging into 
the one basic language, Hebrew. 

Not far from Herzlia is the colony of Afula, 


WHERE HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL © 159 


upon which much interest has centered. Afula 
was an old Arab village located near the central 
railroad station midway between Haifa and 
Damascus. It comprises about four thousand 
acres. For a long time the Commonwealth has 
realized the value of this region, since it is situ- 
ated where all the roads and railroads connecting 
Palestine and Syria meet. It is also in the very 
center of the Emek Valley, which contains more 
than two hundred and fifty thousand acres and is 
destined to be occupied by a large Jewish agri- 
cultural population. 

This area was acquired by the American Zion 
Commonwealth in October, 1924, and the Com- 
monwealth immediately set out to plan a modern 
garden city, engaging for this purpose some of the 
best town planners of Germany and England. 
The Commonwealth took into consideration not 
only the present development of the town but its 
more remote future, foreseeing the rapid progress 
of the whole neighborhood, and so all the plans 
were made to care for a population of one hundred 
and fifty thousand and to provide space for parks, 
boulevards, public squares, and communal build- 


160 PALESTINE AWAKE 


ings. At present about five hundred workmen are 
engaged at Afula building roads, installing pipes 
for water and sewerage, and installing other im- 
provements. ‘The construction of the first hun- 
dred houses began in the middle of 1925, and the 
development is going on rapidly. 

The plan of Afula provides for industrial, com- 
mercial, and residential sections, with special pro- 
vision for the industries that are related to agri- 
culture, such as canneries, packing-houses, and 
cold-storage plants. ‘The rapid development of 
Afula has brought new life to the entire region, 
for it not only provides employment but already 
has developed a market for the farm products 
raised by the farmers of the surrounding colonies. 

During the last six months the Commonwealth 
has purchased several large tracts of land on the 
road between Haifa and Nazareth. ‘These have 
been sold to organized groups of Jews from 
Poland, who have come in a body to settle as 
farmers. 

A most interesting group which the Common- 
wealth is assisting on its tract known as Jeida is 
a band of three hundred families from Lodz, 


ANILSHIVd NI INAWAILLAS MAN TIVOIGAL 








WHERE HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL 161 


which is the textile center of Poland. These 
families are at present all engaged in the textile 
industry, and they contemplate the transfer of the 
entire industry to Palestine, with all its imple- 
ments and machinery. They aim to create in 
Jeida a large codperative textile plant that will 
supply employment to their families and to many 
others who would settle with them. In addition 
to the textile industry, it is planned that each 
family at Jeida shall own a small tract of land 
which would produce about half of its food. 
Thus these families will not be entirely dependent 
on the textile industry. 

The Commonwealth, in addition to selling land 
to the Afula colonists on easy terms, is extending 
a credit of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
for building homes for the settlers and making 
necessary improvements. 

Another recent acquisition of the Common- 
wealth is the entire valley located along Acre 
Bay, extending from Haifa to Acre. It contains 
twenty thousand acres of land, with a sea-frontage 
of ten miles. This entire area has been unculti- 
vated for generations, since many of its springs, 


162 PALESTINE AWAKE 


as well as the Kishon and Nahamain rivers, have 
created vast swamps that have been breeding ma- 
laria and making the region uninhabitable. The 
Commonwealth realized the potential value of 
this vast amount of water, which could be used for 
irrigating the country and opening the way for 
one of the most intensive agricultural develop- 
ments in Palestine. It has worked out a plan for 
harnessing the springs and rivers and thus elim- 
inating the disease-breeding swamps. ‘There are 
now development plans for the entire section 
which will involve the expenditure of millions 
of dollars and the settling of half a million 
population. 

One of the principal projects is for the deepen- 
ing and widening of the Kishon River so as to 
create an inland river port, with large industrial 
developments on both banks, which may become 
the industrial center not only of Palestine but of 
the entire Near East. A considerable area of land 
will be set aside for the development of the sugar 
industry. This region, according to all the experi- 
ments that have been made, is best fitted for the 


WHERE HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL 163 


raising of sugar-cane, by reason of its water-supply 
and its climate and soil. A large sea-shore re- 
sort is also a part of the plan for this de- 
velopment. 


CHAPTER XX 


THE CRADLE OF CULTURE ROCKED ANEW IN THE 
HEBREW UNIVERSITY 


S I stood there on Mount Scopus, looking 
A over the great amphitheater that nature 
herself had built, the spot where Lord Balfour de- 
livered his great speech recently in the dedication 
of the University of the Hebrew, I could not help 
wondering what those old forefathers lying there 
in the tombs in the distance would think could 
they see this newest effort to revive the Jewish 
Homeland. 

The university presents a most picturesque 
paradox. Here in the oldest country the newest 
ideas of education are to be carried out, in great 
part with American money. I doubt if a more 
significant site could have been selected than the 
one upon which the university has erected its first 
building. To the west, one looks down on Jeru- 


salem; to the east, there stands out in relief the 
164 


THE CRADLE OF CULTURE 165 


Dead Sea and the valley of the Jordan, and at the 
further side the mountains of Moab. 

The central board of the university has for its 
members Professor Einstein of relativity fame; 
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zion- 
ist Organization; Felix M. Warburg of New 
York; Dr. J. L. Magnes of New York; Sir Alfred 
Mond; Nathan Sokolow; James de Rothschild; 
Ascher Ginzburg; Dr. E. Libman of New York; 
Dr. Cyrus Adberg of Philadelphia; Judge Julian 
Mack of Chicago; and others. 

Perhaps it is not generally known that the pres- 
ent activity of the university is devoted almost 
entirely to research. It comprises three distinct 
units: Jewish studies; chemistry; medicine and 
agriculture. 

The house that was on the site was sold by the 
executors of the Sir John Gray Hill estate to the 
Zionist Organization, and it has been remodeled 
and houses the Chemical Institute. Adjoining 
this a new building has been erected for the 
Microbiological Institute. The Institute of Jew- 
ish Studies occupies a rented house across from the 
Gray Hill House. The university library has 


166 PALESTINE AWAKE 


two buildings in the city below. It is expected 
that within two years a new library building will 
be constructed on Mount Scopus with funds of 
the David Wolfsohn Foundation, and it will also 
house the Institute of Jewish Studies until the in- 
stitute secures a building of its own. 

It is generally agreed that the prime purpose of 
the university should be the advancement of 
learning, scientific investigation in general, both 
humanistic and scientific. It is believed by the 
authorities that past history proves that it 1s the 
uninterrupted devotion of the few who have given 
their whole attention to research, untrammeled 
by other calls upon their energy, that has brought 
about the intellectual momentum of the world at 
large. The success of Johns Hopkins University 
is cited as an example. The new Hebrew Uni- 
versity therefore presents a group of research in- 
stitutes, and it is hoped that the high scientific 
standard that is to be established will redound to 
the credit of the university and result in a show- 
ing based on the quality rather than the number 
of graduates. 

The Institute of Jewish Studies is one of the 


THE CRADLE OF CULTURE 167 


most interesting divisions that have been estab- 
lished. The chief funds for it have thus far been 
supplied by Felix Warburg of New York, Sol 
Rosenbloom of Pittsburgh, Baron Edmond de 
Rothschild of Paris, and the Zionist Organiza- 
tion. How representative the university is to be 
of the whole world is evidenced by the fact that 
the administration of the Institute of Jewish 
Studies is vested in a committee of twenty-five 
persons, five members each being appointed from 
the United States, France, Great Britain, central 
Europe, and Palestine. The plan is to promote 
the knowledge of Judaism and the Jewish reli- 
gion, the Hebrew language, Jewish literature, 
history, law, philosophy, institutions, and life, 
and especially the study of Palestine. 

The sessions begin with about 175 men and 
women students, only a limited number being ad- 
mitted as research students. The following sec- 
tions are in operation during the year: Philology, 
Professor Margolis of Dropsie College, Philadel- 
phia; Talmud, Professor Guttman of the Rab- 
binical Seminary, Breslau; Palestine Research, 
Professor Klein, rabbi of Novo Zamky. 


168 PALESTINE AWAKE 


The Faculty of Medicine and the Microbiolog- 
ical Institute have been established by the Ameri- 
can Jewish Physicians’ Committee, with Dr. 
Nathan Ratnoff as president, and with a large 
membership of physicians throughout the United 
States. The committee has already collected a 
considerable sum of money and has purchased 
more than seven acres of land on Mount Scopus; 
and there are sufficient funds to conduct the 
Chemical Institute and to pay for the erection of 
homes for research workers. The Chemical In- 
stitute has a medical library, which is largely the 
gift of Dr. Julius Jarcho of New York; an X-ray 
therapeutic and diagnostic outfit has also been in- 
stalled. The physicians’ committee consists of 
Dr. Nathan Ratnoff, Dr. Meyer R. Robinson, Dr. 
Henry W. Frauenthal, Dr. Emanuel Libman, Dr. 
Harry E. Isaacs, and Dr. S. Wechsler, all of New 
York, and of several others, including Dr. Israel 
Stimes and Dr. Kaliski. 

The Institute of Agriculture and Natural His- 
tory is to grow out of the agricultural experimental 
station which was founded by the Zionist Organi- 
zation in 1922 for the purpose of improving agri- 


THE CRADLE OF CULTURE 169 


culture in Palestine in all its branches by means of 
scientific and technical research and by demon- 
stration work for farmers. Two hundred and 
fifty acres are already in cultivation at this sta- 
tion. The aim of this institute is to render the 
results of the research department available to 
farmers by individual advice, lectures, publica- 
tions, and demonstrations. The station has two 
farm advisers, one for Judea and one for Galilee, 
and has one hundred and fifty acres of ground for 
demonstration purposes in the Jewish colonies. 
Heretofore the station has been maintained in con- 
nection with the colonization department of the 
Zionist Organization. It is not to be made a part 
of the University College of Agriculture. The 
directors of this station are Professor O. Warburg 
and Mr. Vilkansky. 

The library of the university, it is hoped, will 
become one of the most important in the world. 
Dr. Hugo Bergman, formerly of the University 
Library at Prague, is in charge. Over one hun- 
dred thousand books are on hand. The library 
authorities consider themselves fortunate in ob- 


taining recognition and gifts from several govern- 


170 PALESTINE AWAKE 


ments, among them being the United States. 
The New York Public Library, too, has made sev- 
eral gifts of equipment. The government of Pal- 
estine in a letter to the authorities of the British 
Museum of Great Britain recognized the hbrary 
as having academic rank, and Sir Herbert Samuel 
presented many gifts. The government of France 
presented several hundred volumes, and the gov- 
ernments of Italy and Czechoslavakia are at pres- 
ent preparing gifts of large collections of books. 
The institute publishes a quarterly bibliographical 
review, “Kiryat Sefer.” 

The further expansion of the university is to 
follow similar lines. Other branches of human- 
istic learning will be added, or formed into sepa- 
rate institutes as the possibilities arise. On the 
scientific side the next step will be research insti- 
tutes in physiology, physics, and mathematics. 
Important among these is the Balfour-Einstein 
Institute of Mathematics and Physics. When 
these have been established, the development of 
the other side of the university will be worked out, 
the teaching and training of those who are to take 


THE CRADLE OF CULTURE 171 


part in the spiritual and intellectual revival that 
is to emanate from Palestine. | 

What is regarded as a very important develop- 
ment is the establishment of the Hebrew language, 
which until forty years ago had been virtually 
dead for generations. To-day Hebrew is being 
spoken all over Palestine as one of the official 
languages, and it is being revived in all parts of 
the world. 

As has already been mentioned, the revival of 
the dead language has been brought about chiefly 
through the efforts of one man, Eliezer Ben 
Yehudah, who as a pioneer of Palestine worked 
forty years to eliminate the Jewish jargon then in 
vogue and permit only Hebrew to be spoken. 
The university authorities regard his achievement 
as ‘“‘one of the most significant events of our time.” 
They are of the opinion that the revival of He- 
brew will mean for the Jewish people the recon- 
quest of something which they have lacked for 
centuries, the power of self-expression in their own 
idiom. 

That the Hebrew University has no contro- 


172 PALESTINE AWAKE 


versies nor any seeming enemies is evidenced by 
the fact that all factions of Palestine and all 
creeds were represented at the laying of the foun- 
dation, including General Allenby and his staff, 
representatives of the French and Italian contin- 
gents, the American Red Cross Mission, the chief 
rabbis of Jerusalem, Cairo, and Alexandria, and 
representatives of other religious communities, 
the Grand Mufti of the Arabs and the Anglican 
and Greek bishops. Thus, beginning with friend- 
ship and good will from all quarters, the univer- 
sity bids fair to flourish. 


CHAPTER XXI 


WEIZMANN SEES BUT ONE GOAL FOR THE JEW-— 
PALESTINE 


“WY AM very hopeful of the whole Zionist move- 
| ab said Dr. Chaim Weizmann, head of 
the World Zionist Organization, when I dis- 
cussed the situation with him in London on my 
return from Palestine. Dr. Weizmann, it will 
be remembered, resigned at the Zionist Congress 
held in Vienna in August, 1925, but by an over- 
whelming vote of confidence was urged to remain 
at the head of the organization, which he con- 
sented to do. 

“More and more people are coming to realize 
that the settlement of the Jews in Palestine as 
their Homeland is the logical and constructive 
thing to do. And when they learn the results 
that are being constantly attained there—the de- 


velopment of colonies; the settling of Jewish 
173 


174 PALESTINE AWAKE 


people on the soil; the progress of cities like Tel 
Aviv as a shining example of what can be accom- 
plished; the building of an entire city, ultra- 
modern, from a population of next to nothing to 
forty thousand, and now in a most flourishing 
condition—these are the facts that must impress 
the skeptic of Zionism. 

“Of course our problem is difficult. When you 
stop to reason that all of the business of pioneer- 
ing has been one for the Jews, and all of the prob- 
lems such as irrigation, health, education, and 
kindred public improvements have been developed 
at our own expense, it can readily be seen that 
great obstacles have been surmounted. . The fact 
is that there are some eighty colonies in the outly- 
ing districts, where the people are tilling the land 
and constantly gaining ground, aside from the ur- 
ban developments. And the young pioneers—the 
haluztm—are the makers of the Homeland. 

“What is needed, however, is a more thorough 
awakening among the Jews themselves outside of 
Palestine. ‘They must be impressed with the im- 
portance of not hurting the great cause that al- 
ready has been so firmly established. 


BUT ONE GOAL FOR THE JEW 175 


‘As an example, there is the movement for the 
settlement of Jews in the Crimea. The relief of 
the suffering Jews in the Crimea or anywhere 
else is worthy of consideration. To aid such 
people to settle on the land and put them in a 
position to help themselves is most commend- 
able. 

“As a means of relief of rehabilitating such 
people as are already there and putting them on 
their feet—all of this is worth while and should 
be approved; but to spend millions of dollars in 
settling Jews in Crimea or elsewhere, as a counter- 
movement to the Zionist effort, this indeed would 
be deplorable and in my judgment would be a 
step backward instead of forward. 

“The history of Russia in the past, and even 
in the present, in connection with the Jew, has not 
been such as would inspire confidence that any 
large outlay of money would give hope of creat- 
ing a Homeland for the Jewish people there. 
The stability of the Soviet government has yet to 
be sounded and the fortunes of the Jews more 
firmly established and assured than at present to 
warrant any idea that the Crimea or any other 


176 PALESTINE AWAKE 


such place could become the permanent home for 
the Jews. 

“Any fair-minded person can see that there 
could be no comparison as between Crimea and 
Palestine for the safety and the security of the 
Jewasa Homeland. The very fact that the Eng- 
lish government and other leading governments, 
including America, have expressed their approval 
of the establishment of the Homeland of the Jews 
in Palestine gives sufficient belief of protection to 
the Jews in their efforts in Palestine. 

“Not only this, but the mandate of the League 
of Nations which England holds over Palestine, 
with its broad powers, presents further assurance 
that every effort will be made to protect the in- 
terest and promote the welfare of the Jew in the 
land of his forefathers. And I have my firm be- 
lief that England will protect and further such 
interest to the cause as will eventually firmly es- 
tablish Palestine as the one permanent home of 
the Jews as a people. 

“I do not wish to be regarded in any sense as 
advancing any criticism of the efforts being made 
by the Jews of America in aiding our brethren in 


BUT ONE GOAL FOR THE JEW 177 


the Crimea or to minimize the good that could re- 
sult. But that such a movement would take the 
place of creating a Homeland for the Jews in 
Palestine is erroneous and one that should not be 
countenanced by the Jews, whose hearts have been 
stirred and who have gone forward and toiled in- 
cessantly in the cause of giving back to the Jew 
the national home that belonged to him thousands 
of years ago. ‘This has been the prayer of the 
Jews for centuries, and it is a mission that must 
be fulfilled. 

“T understand that the leaders in the movement 
to aid the Jews in the Crimea have no desire to 
set up a counter-settlement of Jews in Russia as 
against Zionism. On the contrary, the Zionist 
cause is included in the funds to be derived from 
the drive to raise money.” 

All of these views have also been expressed by 
Louis Lipsky, president of the Zionist organiza- 


tion of America. 


CHAPTER XXII 


THE MAN WHO FOREVER FEELS THE PULSE-BEAT 
OF HUMANITY 


LL through Palestine, in the cities, in the 
A colonies, in fact everywhere, the name of 
Nathan Straus kept coming to my ears as the 
founder of this, that, and the other thing. In 
truth, his name is synonymous with pioneer, for 
he began by going there himself in 1904 accom- 
panied by his wife. When the story of Palestine 
is told a generation from now, the name of Na- 
than Straus will shine in unreflected luster. Per- 
haps no man of our time has founded so many ac- 
tivities for alleviating the burdens of humanity 
as has Mr. Straus with his pasteurization, his 
Health Department in Palestine, and his human- 
itarian work in general. 

Of his partner, Lina Guthertz Straus, you hear 


comparatively little, for, as she puts it, she is 
178 


THE PULSE-BEAT OF HUMANITY 179 


“only his secretary and helpmate.” Yet, with- 
out her, who knows that many of the things I saw 
and heard in this land of their forefathers might 
not be of another story. For it is not only in ma- 
terial things that she helps; and no one that ever 
touches the fine generous spirit of the woman who 
has been “secretary and helpmate” for fifty years 
to Nathan Straus can be anything but bettered 
and strengthened. 

A picturesque incident of last April in connec- 
tion with Mrs. Straus is worthy of comment. 
She presented her complete collection of jewels to 
the Hadassah, the welfare organization that has 
already been discussed. One of these jewels was 
presented by the Hadassah to Lady Samuel, the 
wife of the former high commissioner, in appre- 
ciation of what he had done for Palestine. To 
commemorate the presentation of the gift, the 
Hadassah raised ten thousand dollars as a special 
contribution to the medical organization, that “out 
of these jewels shall also shine for Palestine the 
light of life-giving love and service which Isaiah 
of old beheld in the jewels of a resplendent Zion.” 
Lady Samuel has made an arrangement by which 


180 PALESTINE AWAKE 


the jewels eventually revert to a Zionist body, to 
help once more in the work of Zionism. 

But this chapter is concerned with what Nathan 
Straus has done in Palestine. Perhaps his big- 
gest achievement is in creating on behalf of the 
Jews the desire to work in harmony with the Arab 
and the Christian population of Palestine, for 
everything he has founded has been subject to 
the proviso that it is to be open to the Arab and the 
Christian as well as to the Jew. 

When I visited one of his child welfare sta- 
tions, I found Arab mothers being taught to mix 
the infant food properly and to practise the first 
rudiments of sanitation. 

The two soup-kitchens, which might better be 
termed restaurants, are the joy of Palestine. One 
is situated in the old city and the other one in 
Mea Shearim. During August 44,538 meals 
were given free to destitute people (1925). As 
has already been stated, there is no poverty in the 
world equal to that of Palestine. Abject it is; 
and the grim reaper is ever present, in hovels, on 
the streets, behind walls—everywhere. At pres- 
ent an average of seventeen hundred persons daily 


THE PULSE-BEAT OF HUMANITY 181 


—Arabs and Christians as well as Jews—receive 
free meals at the soup-kitchens. 

The soup-kitchens provide for members of the 
Sephartic or Spanish community inside the wall 
and for the Ashkenasdic or German community 
outside the wall; they comprise young students 
and the aged and infirm, as well as widows and 
poor families who take their meals home to the 
sick and other members of their families who are 
unable to come out. 

The Nurses’ Settlement, which was started by 
Mr. Straus in 1913 by taking two trained nurses 
and attaching them to the Health Department in 
Jerusalem, was the beginning of health work that 
has been of vast importance. The Health De- 
partment was also instituted by Mr. Straus. Dur- 
ing the war a Bacteriological Department was es- 
tablished in connection with it, and typhoid and 
other serums were prepared and supplied to the 
English army. ‘The outcome of all this is a fully 
established Health Department under the man- 
date governments. But hospitals, nurses’ training 
schools, clinics, and dispensaries are all success- 
fully conducted by the Hadassah under the leader- 


182 PALESTINE AWAKE 


ship of Henrietta Szold, and Mr. Straus plays a 
notable part in the work. 

When Mr. Straus was making the first small 
beginning, he established the Nurses’ Settlement, 
and the first scientific obstetrical work in Jeru- 
salem was started by these nurses. This was fol- 
lowed by the treatment, in the schools and in the 
family, of trachoma, which has been one of the 
curses of the country. 

A Pasteur Institute Bureau was put in opera- 
tion. This work continues to bring its blessings 
to the country, which until then had no means of 
treating victims of hydrophobia. The nearest 
Pasteur Institutes were in Constantinople and in 
Cairo. People bitten by mad dogs often died be- 
fore they could reach these distant places. Mr. 
and Mrs. Straus stopped in Paris on their way 
back to America and made the arrangements; in 
a month a Pasteur Institute, under the Bacte- 
riological Department of the Health Bureau, was 
ready to deal with rabies. 

In the subsequent work of the Hadassah organ- 
ization Mr. Straus took an active part. At sev- 


THE PULSE-BEAT OF HUMANITY 183 


eral periods of financial stress he came to the rescue 
and enabled the Hadassah to carry on, with the 
result that now it is a going institution in Pales- 
tine and continues to enlarge. Whenever there 
is a shortage of money in Palestine, the Straus 
Fund is always on hand. Only a short time be- 
fore my visit five thousand dollars was taken 
temporarily from the Nathan Straus Fund; it 
had been intended for one purpose but had to be 
used by the Hadassah for another more pressing 
one, such as the relief of suffering from typhoid 
and dysentery epidemics. Pasteurization, which 
is, perhaps, Mr. Straus’s greatest work, he has 1n- 
sisted must be kept non-sectarian. 

One of the child welfare stations in the Arab 
quarters is conducted by Jewish nurses who have 
been trained at the Hadassah Training School 
for Nurses. They speak Arabic and thereby gain 
the confidence of the Arab mothers, who never 
before knew anything about hygiene or the diet 
of their children. They come now and call for 
pasteurized milk, just as the Christian and the 
Jewish mothers do, and they are gradually becom- 


184 PALESTINE AWAKE 


ing educated in child-caring. The station was 
established by funds supplied solely by Mr. 
Straus. 

The first infant welfare clinic in the old city 
was established in 1921, and for the first time an 
opportunity was given to mothers in Palestine 
to bring their children to the station and receive 
advice and instruction. Those who had always 
lived in Palestine knew the ravages of infant 
mortality that were going on. In less than two 
months the influx of mothers had necessitated the 
opening of a second clinic, this time outside the 
walls, and there have since then been several 
more. It is a curious sight to see a donkey with 
a case adjusted to his back containing pasteurized 
milk bottles packed in ice. He is led by a 
driver, who delivers the milk to the various sub- 
stations. The prevention of illness and the sav- 
ing of babies’ lives are constantly resulting. 

In the reconstruction of the Holy Land there 
is nothing more important than the safeguarding 
of the health of its citizens, for this means strong 
healthy builders, on whom depends the welfare of 


THE PULSE-BEAT OF HUMANITY | 185 


future generations. And this fundamental work 
is being accomplished through the codperation of 
Mr. Straus, who is in close touch with everything 
that is being done. 

Among other philanthropies established by Mr. 
Straus are work-rooms for unskilled labor. 
These provided employment for many during the 
war. Pearl beads, trinkets, and pearl buttons 
were the chief products. A domestic science 
school for girls was founded. A large contribu- 
tion to the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem helped 
to put it on its feet; it is to-day making a fine 
contribution to art, inspiring a love of the beauti- 
ful in the young. 

On being informed that a piece of land right 
opposite the Tomb of Rachel was for sale, Mr. 
Straus bought it in order to prevent it from get- 
ting into undesirable hands. It is on the road to 
Bethlehem, four and a half miles from Jerusalem. 
Its purchase will shut out cheap restaurants and 
food stations from the neighborhood of the tomb, 
which is visited by many thousands of people. 

Another plot on the same road, near Jerusalem, 


186 PALESTINE AWAKE 


was bought: by Mr. Straus, and will doubtless 
some day be used for a university. It is beauti- 
fully located, high up on the hill overlooking 
the Jordan and its entire valley. 

Perhaps the biggest of his accomplishments 
in Palestine was the founding of a Health Depart- 
ment in Jerusalem, which was hitherto unknown. 
This was not an easy thing to bring about, until the 
realization of the urgent need for sanitary and 
hygienic reform came like an inspiration. 

Malaria infested the country: it killed many 
every year and kept others from working. Ab- 
sence of a sewage-disposal system, shortage of 
water, and general neglect, which furnished mos- 
quitos with breeding-places, were the primary 
causes of malaria. It was estimated that 2§ per 
cent of the population of Palestine suffered from 
the disease. The first undertaking was the fight 
against malaria. This was so successfully con- 
ducted that in 1913, after a year’s labor, the dis- 
ease had been eradicated in many places. Grad- 
ually other work was taken up, such as the 
prevention of eye diseases, mainly trachoma. The 
Health Department was equipped for promoting 


THE PULSE-BEAT OF HUMANITY 187 


public health and sanitation and for preventive 
measures generally. To-day the Health Depart- 
ment, conducted by the government, is rising 
rapidly on the foundation laid by Mr. Straus. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


ROTHSCHILD AND THE PROPHECY 


O name is so closely allied with the re- 
building of Palestine as that of Baron 


Edmond de Rothschild, who for more than half 
a century has been aiding settlers, promoting in- 
dustries, and developing schools. 

One of the first colonies from which have grown 
the present eighty-five flourishing centers was 
that of Zichron-Yakob, which was named in 
honor of his father. Many of the colonies that 
are most advanced to-day are the results of the 
work of Rothschild. The Rothschild Hospital is 
another of his achievements. 

The baron’s propensity of looking ahead, which 
was the dominant characteristic of his family 
everywhere, led him to establish the first school 
for agriculture, the Mikweh-Israel in Palestine, 


which has been described elsewhere. He had 
188 


ROTHSCHILD AND THE PROPHECY 189 


great faith in the importance of starting the 
young in the right direction, and to this end he 
aided the orphans who came to the Holy Land. 

The Palestine of the present day has been a 
mother to thousands of Jewish orphans. During 
the years of the war and after, Palestine has been 
holding out her arms and has welcomed Jewish 
orphans from the Ukraine, Poland, Persia, Russia, 
and all the rest of the war-ridden world. In ad- 
dition, she has gathered from her own streets 
many children who, through the death or destitu- 
tion of their parents, were left without natural 
protectors. 

The Palestine Orphan Committee is mainly 
made up of volunteer workers. Two of the most 
attractive settlements in the whole country have 
been established by it. One, for a hundred girls, 
is at Meier Chfeye, near Zichron-Yakob, on high 
wooded land given by Baron Rothschild and over- 
looking the Mediterranean Sea. It is conducted 
on a modified cottage system. The girls receive 
systematic training in housework and become 
capable mothers’ helpers and farmers’ wives. 

Another industry, wine manufacture, mainly 


190 PALESTINE AWAKE 


for religious purposes, has been strongly devel- 
oped through his efforts. As the result of his 
initial success at grape-growing, Baron de Roth- 
schild constructed the famous wine-cellars at 
Rishon-le-Zion and at Zichron-Yakob; those at 
Rishon-le-Zion are reputed to be among the most 
extensive in the world. To give an idea of the 
vast area it covers, it need only be mentioned 
that its big glazed concrete tanks have a capacity 
of about two million gallons. The two large 
wine-cellars contain the most up-to-date machin- 
ery for pressing the grapes, which are brought 
from the colonies of Rishon-le-Zion, Rehoboth, 
Gedera, and Nes-Ziona, also developed by 
Rothschild. 

One could go on indefinitely telling of the 
Rothschild agencies to aid the people in settling 
the land. “The Baron,” as he is lovingly desig- 
nated, will go down in history as standing for 
what is best in constructive philanthropy. The 
organization known as the Pica (Palestine Jewish 
Colonization Association) has been formed to 
conduct the work of the Rothschild Palestine 
undertakings. 


ROTHSCHILD AND THE PROPHECY 191 


The following statement, made by Baron de 
Rothschild before the Zionist settlers while he 
was on what is said to be his farewell visit a 
short time before I arrived in Palestine, is char- 
acteristic of the man and of the general spirit 
that pervades the entire work of rebuilding a 
national home: 

“When I call to mind the past—about fifty 
years ago—when I began my work—when I re- 
call the condition of the land in those days with 
its stones, its brambles and briars, and its in- 
habitants straining to bring forth from its barren 
soil a few thin ears of corn, it seems that what 
I see before me to-day is like a dream. 

“But at that time I perceived the suffering of 
our brethren in eastern Europe who were endur- 
ing misery and oppression, and living in constant 
fear of massacres. J saw for them no other sal- 
vation than their return to the land of their 
fathers, notwithstanding its impoverished state. 
There Israel would reveal to the world not only 
its spiritual and ethical worth, but its power to 
work, and I hoped we might succeed in achieving 
the revival of the people of Israel on the soil of 


192 _ PALESTINE AWAKE 


Israel. I never thought that Palestine could con- 
tain all the Jews, nor do I believe it possible 
to-day. My hope was the establishment of an im- 
portant center for the development of Judaism, 
its noble teaching and sublime culture, a center 
which should exert a wholesome influence on the 
condition of the Jews in all other lands. 

“The results of the hard work done in Palestine 
had their effect on the Jewish question in the 
world at large. This movement with its begin- 
nings in the very heart of Israel brought about 
a larger spirit of unit and mutual helpfulness 
and so affected the public opinion of the world 
as to bring about the confirmation of the 
declaration regarding the National Home at the 
Peace Conference. 

“The recognition of the declaration by all the 
leading Governments of the world and its in- 
dorsement by the League of Nations appear to 
us as the embodiment of that prophecy which 
strengthened and encouraged our forefathers 
throughout the many long centuries of suffering. 
After two thousand years we see before us the 
realization of the words of the Prophet: 


ROTHSCHILD AND THE PROPHECY 193 


“Surely the isles shall wait for Me, 
And the ships of Tatshish first, 
To bring thy sons from afar.” 


“Happy are we who are alive, at this auspi- 
cious hour. 

“During the last four years, under the excellent 
guidance of Sir Herbert Samuel, who has brought 
peace and order into a land which before him 
knew only a government of tyranny, and who 
deals justly with all, irrespective of race or reli- 
gion, how great has been the growth of Israel! 
Everywhere new colonies have sprung up which in 
time will equal the older ones in prosperity. 
Townships have been created that are entirely 
Jewish. Tel-Aviv has become a large city, a 
veritable human hive, while private enterprise 
is creating industry of every type, and with the 
development of our agricultural settlements we 
may proclaim that our National Home rests upon 
two mighty foundations: Agriculture and 
Industry. 

“But the most characteristic symbol of the 
National Home is the spiritual and ethical phase 
of our activities, for it is particularly in this di- 


194 PALESTINE AWAKE 


rection that the spirit of Judaism can develop. 
Therefore the creation of the university inau- 
gurates a great chapter of Jewish history Behold 
in all parts of the world, in every branch of 
science we have men of brilliant minds and search- 
ing spirits, like Einstein, and Bergson—then 
why may we not prophesy that the Hebrew Uni- 
versity will shed the light of its new knowledge 
upon the field of natural science and mathemat- 
ics and in the realm of spiritual and religious 
thought? 

“It is in the language of our forefathers, in 
the Hebrew tongue, that lectures shall be read and 
heard in the Hebrew University. 

“Nationality marks out the paths along which 
their political policies may move. Nevertheless, 
though the principle of nationality is so strong a 
force in national relations, it is not to be thought 
that the Jews entering Palestine must make it 
the basic principle of their lives. This should 
not be the attitude of the new-comers, for the 
country is still in the process of rebuilding and 
the people who now come to dwell on its shores 


have for centuries lived in various countries. 


ROTHSCHILD AND THE PROPHECY 195 


“Resting upon the work I have done in Pales- 
tine, I wish to say how to my mind the National 
Home should develop, in order to avoid the diffi- 
culties which inevitably arise out of vain hopes, 
and how to remove the stumbling-blocks which 
you will find in your way should you wander 
from the path of righteousness. Only then will 
the National Home occupy the position in the 
world which is suited to it. 

“First and foremost you should strive to en- 
noble the high conception of the National Home 
and bend your efforts to achieve its realization. 
Its development shall benefit all the inhabitants of 
the country. You must live, as ‘you have done 
until now, on the most friendly terms with your 
neighbors. In this way you will remain faithful 
to the principles which our forefathers have trans- 
mitted to us: ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ 
The Jewish nation cannot thrive without being 
closely knit to our past by means of our traditions. 
For what can a handful of Jews, depending on 
their material resources only, achieve in this re- 
mote corner of the world in the midst of interna- 
tional strife which destroys even the mighty na- 


196 PALESTINE AWAKE 


tions of the world? Even in a slight disturbance 
you would be blown as chaff before the wind. 

“In whatever you do, be it your daily work or in 
your loftiest aspirations, abide by the principles 
of Judaism and strive for spiritual perfection, 
which is the very soul of our religion and of our 
eternal Torah. The Torah which we made known 
to the world thousands of years ago when the 
nations who surrounded us were still barbarians, 
engrossed in savage practices—that Torah has 
kept us alive through the centuries and preserved 
our youth and strength for thousands of years. 

“The sacredness of the family, based on the 
principle of respect and honor for parents, is the 
very foundation of a stable society; without it 
social confusion is inevitable. 

“The relation of man to man is based on the 
general ethical principle, “hat which is hateful 
unto thee shall not work unto others.’ 

“If you follow this tradition you shall fulfill 
in this world a function befitting the nation which 
has heard the words of the prophets. 

“Teach your sons the words of the law which 
our fathers have transmitted to us and which have 


ROTHSCHILD AND THE PROPHECY 197 


preserved us unto this day. Be true to your past 
and work for the improvement of the world. The 
lamp which our fathers have kindled and kept 
shall not be dimmed. In this spirit our Home 
will be built no matter how small its dimensions, 
and in this spirit shall Israel fulfil its noble mis- 
sion. Israel shall live among the great nations 
of the world and the Home which it shall erect 
shall be mighty and firm.” 


CHAPTER XXIV 


ENGLAND'S JOB 


HAVE the firm belief, and it is likewise held 
I by all who have come to the Holy Land, that 
Palestine, the land that was formerly flowing with 
milk and honey, with its wonderful climate and 
many physical advantages, can again, as in past 
generations, become one of the great countries of 
the world. For so many hundreds of years has 
it been left to haphazard development that prog- 
ress has been at snail’s pace and the situation is 
most deplorable. 

No country in the world has been so woefully 
neglected. The people, especially the natives, are 
still living in biblical primitiveness. The whole 
civilized world should be aroused to the conditions 
obtaining there. The place should be preserved 
by the world at large one that is reverenced and 


holy because of its history and antiquity. 
198 


ENGLAND'S JOB 199 


It has been left to ruin and decay for lack of 
funds and because of the constant religious con- 
troversies with which the officials are confronted 
by all kinds of religious denominations that have 
settled there, and it has been a hardship for the 
authorities who have tried to preserve these an- 
cient landmarks. This in itself is a serious and 
most vital problem that should be settled once and 
for all. 

Perhaps no country in the world has the oppor- 
tunity that England now has with its mandate to 
bring back the Holy Land to its former prosperity 
and historical importance. I would say that 
there is no land of greater promise than Palestine. 
It will have a renaissance unequaled by any other 
region of the world. ‘The reason for this is that it 
has what the whole world wants and what no 
other part of the world has—the ancient history in 
which all creeds are interested. The charm of 
the country is unique and distinct from any other 
part of the world. Paradoxically, to preserve 
its antiquity, modern agencies must be introduced. 

While we like to hold fast to the camel and the 
donkey and the flowing-robed natives to satisfy 


200 PALESTINE AWAKE 


our artistic senses, yet when we realize the prim- 
itive burdens these people have borne for centuries, 
some of our esthetic joys must be sacrificed to 
make their lives easier and happier. 

To see women carrying great baskets on their 
heads and men bearing pianos on their backs may 
be well enough for a picture and a story, yet I 
long to see the day when human life, human feel- 
ing, will be more carefully conserved. What is 
badly needed is the advance of public utilities, 
and foremost is the crying need of water. In this 
time of enlightened civilization and of the 
development of engineering, it should not be an 
insurmountable task to provide sufficient running 
water for everybody. 

Fancy a whole city like Jerusalem existing on 
rain-water alone. Recently there was a terrific 
drouth, and people were unable to get sufficient 
water for human needs. Hundreds of children 
were seen on the streets carrying tin pails of water 
on their heads or shoulders. Every family, no 
matter how poor, had to buy water for its daily 
use. 

The development of electricity, gas, housing, 


ENGLAND'S JOB 201 


and transportation should be the concern of those 
interested in Palestine. The donkey and the 
camel must give way to machine-made trans- 
portation. And above all, the elimination of 
poverty, distress, and destitution is a herculean 
task that can be accomplished. 

But all of these things must have the support, 
the codperation, and the constant concern of the 
government. There are many _ public-spirited 
citizens in Palestine, of all creeds, who are willing 
to invest money in the interest of the public. But 
they need encouragement, backing, and monetary 
aid from the government. No country can rise 
above its poverty-stricken parts. 

My heart is torn asunder with the misery and 
degradation and the lack of knowledge of san- 
itation and better living—the worst I have ever 
seen—and especially does my sympathy go out 
to the children. Some excellent work has been 
accomplished in raising the standards of living. 
But this has all been left to private organizations, 
and little has been done by the government itself. 

I have recommended to the governmental au- 
thorities that the way to begin in the making of a 


202 PALESTINE AWAKE 


better generation here, as anywhere, is with the 
children, and have suggested to the high commis- 
sioner, Lord Plumer, that a commission be ap- 
pointed by the government to study the entire 
child question. That has never been done. 

We did the same work in New York State, 
which resulted in the present child welfare law. 
I served on the commission appointed to study the 
question in 1913, and know what can be accom- 
plished by a thorough investigation of conditions. 
And nothing can be done until this step is first 
taken. 

The Zionist Organization, whatever may be 
said for or against it, has brought progress into 
the country in unmistakable achievements, in the 
development of colonies, or centers, in the build- 
ing of the city of Tel Aviv. But the burden of 
it all has been left to that organization. It has 
been saddled with the jobs of sanitation, irriga- 
tion of swamps, education of children, and the 
preservation of health, all of which logically be- 
long to the government. 

If these burdens could be lifted from the 
shoulders of those who are trying to reclaim the 


ENGLAND’S JOB 203 


land and bring it to its former prosperity, the 
money that is used for these fundamental public 
works could be appropriated for better housing 
conditions, higher cultivation of the land, and 
kindred elevating measures. 

For example, over one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand boxes of oranges were sent out from one dis- 
trict alone—a new development. Fruits and 
vegetables that are raised in California and Flor- 
ida can be grown in Palestine, and the country 
could become self-supporting if not really flour- 
ishing. The tobacco industry, which has just 
been started, 1s in a similar process of develop- 
ment. 

But I repeat that unless the government lifts 
the burdens from those who are striving to do 
something there, the task will prove most difficult, 
if not impossible. Think what it means for the 
mayor of Jerusalem to have a budget of only 
twenty-five thousand dollars for the upkeep of 
the entire city. When you stop to think that in 
our Department of Child Welfare alone in New 
York City our appropriation this year is nearly 
five million dollars for the maintenance of one 


204 PALESTINE AWAKE 


third of the number of souls to be cared for in 
Jerusalem, it is readily seen how meager such a 
sum is and how few improvements can be made. 

But despite this, those intrusted with the work 
in Palestine are doing their utmost. For ex- 
ample, the mayor of Jerusalem told me that in 
the last five years twenty-four roads have been 
built, and many of the old ones have been widened 
and repaired. ‘They are getting electricity, and 
they expect that soon the whole city will be elec- 
trified. A police department organized with 
modern efficiency has been established. And 
many other civic reforms are taking place here in 
spite of the many handicaps. 

I found in my investigation that the former 
high commissioner of Palestine has done every- 
thing in his power to be impartial and neutral in 
the administration of affairs as between the va- 
rious denominations, and especially between Arabs 
and the Jews, and that this strictly impartial 
spirit is one that obtains with the present high 
commissioner. While this sounds very well, be- 
ing neutral and impartial where there is a popu- 
lation in and around Palestine of seven hundred 


ENGLAND'S JOB 205 


thousand Arabs and approximately one hundred 
and twenty-five thousand Jews—it would seem 
that the situation calls for more than mere neu- 
trality of attitude. 

Certainly, when the Jew has developed the land 
and built up a city like Tel Aviv, rising in five 
years from nothing to a modern city of forty 
thousand, it seems that more impetus might be 
given by the government to the further develop- 
ment of the country. 

There is considerable tillable land available 
that the government might sell, and which, ac- 
cording to its mandate, it should grant to the 
settlers of the country. Instead of this, little 
has been done, and the native who owns the land 
has been holding it for exhorbitant prices because 
of the possible influx of Jewish immigrants to 
Palestine. The government might even con- 
demn some of this land and sell it at nominal 
figures to any one, Jew or Arab, who is willing to 
do his share in cultivating the soil. 

It should be noted that wherever the Jew has 
developed enterprises the Arab has been bene- 
fited as well. The government could well take 


206 PALESTINE AWAKE 


cognizance of this and give larger support than it 
has in the past. 

After all, in accepting the mandate for Pales- 
tine from the League of Nations, England as- 
sumed the business of aiding the Jews to secure a 
Homeland. The actual mandate reads as fol- 
lows: “the mandatory shall be responsible for 
placing the country under such political, admin- 
istrative and economic conditions as will secure 
the establishment of the Jewish National Home 
and the development of self-governing institu- 
tions.” The Zionist organization is recognized 
as the public body to codperate with the adminis- 
tration in all matters that affect the Jewish Na- 
tional Home and the general Jewish interests. In 
Irak the British obligated themselves to establish 
an Arab kingdom. | 

All of these opinions I present in the spirit of 
great appreciation of what the people themselves 
are doing in Palestine—Arab and Jew—in better- 
ing themselves. But there must be governmental 
interest in the further development of Palestine. 
I maintain that thousands of people from all over 
the world will go to Palestine if some of the New- 


ENGLAND’S JOB 207 


World advantages are provided. I am hopeful 
that the day will come when the small merchant, 
who now has a hole in the wall for a store and 
one room for a dwelling, in a very narrow street, 
will be living in sanitary quarters, will be sell- 
ing under more progressive conditions and will 
have greater opportunities; that these beautifully 
artistic streets of old Jerusalem will be cleaned 
up and pointed out as merely necessary hardships 
of a past generation, when the people did the best 
they could with what they had. 

If the Zionist Organization, with all its con- 
structive and cultural activities, has done nothing 
more than to bring to Palestine the welfare work 
that is being done, it has fulfilled a very great 
mission, and every group that carries into the 
country newer ways of doing things in eliminat- 
ing human suffering has done something for 
mankind. 

I am hopeful that the whole world will be 
aroused to the importance of aiding Palestine to 
become the pilgrimage center of all peoples. 


CHAPTER XXV 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE 


N the foregoing chapters, we have presented 
| what is going on in Palestine—the develop- 
ment of the colonies, the changing from old ways 
to new methods, the building operations, the dif_- 
culties encountered and overcome in connection 
with irrigation, redeeming the soil. 

As has been stated, the most important matter 
is for the English government itself to do more 
intensive work in the restoration and upbuilding 
of the land aside from the efforts being made by 
the Zionist Organization. 

Just how far the English government itself re- 
gards its work in this connection was well stated 
recently by the British colonial secretary when he 
invited the Arabs’ attention to the protection that 
the English Government has given them. He 
said ; 

I think that the British government has done all in 


its power to help the prosperity of the native population. 
208 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE 209 


But I am not sure that the whole credit is due to the 
government. Part of this increase in the prosperity and 
numbers of the Arab population is undoubtedly due to 
the capital wealth that has been brought into the country 
by the Jews. As colonial secretary I have to deal with 
about forty different governments in countries mostly 
undeveloped, and the one thing that all these countries 
ask for is more capital and more population. Jewish 
settlement brings you both these much needed things. 


As an example of this test that Jewish resettle- 
ment has helped the Arab, he cites the following: 

In 1920 the Arabs numbered 618,000. To-day 
they number about 698,000, an increase of 80,- 
ooo. During the same period the Jewish num- 
bers rose to 108,000 from 55,000 in 1920, an 
increase of 53,000. While part of the growth 
of the Arab population is due to natural increase, 
part of it is doubtless due to the wealth and pros- 
perity contributed by the new Jewish settlers. 
The net increase in the Arab population is also 
influenced by the reduced death-rate, particularly 
in infant mortality, due to the two civilizing in- 
fluences working side by side, the British admin- 
istration and the Jewish immigration. As the 


210 PALESTINE AWAKE 


Arab birth-rate is not appreciably decreasing, the 
Arabs will always outnumber the Jews, unless 
Jewish immigration is maintained at or exceeds 
the total of 25,000 a year at which it stands 
at the end of 1925. ‘This is greater by 15,000 
than the average of the preceding four years, but 
to produce this showing, little help comparatively 
has been given by the government. 

Article 6 of the Mandate directs the British 
government to “facilitate Jewish immigration 

. and encourage close settlement by Jews on 
the land, including State lands and waste lands 
not required for public purposes.” When a 
Jewish deputation reminded the colonial secre- 
tary of this promise, his reply was: 

In view of the many criticisms directed against the 
Zionist movement and in the interests of the movement 
itself, economically as well as politically, the more it 
can rely upon its own successes and its own economic 


strength and the less it relies upon direct government as- 


sistance, the better. 


So it has been up to now practically left to the 
Zionists to rehabilitate the Homeland. 
Compared to what the Zionists are spending in 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE 211 


the country, with the Jews representing only about 
15 per cent of the population, the government 
budget is very small indeed. 

Against a government budget of about $400,- 
ooo for looking after the health and sanitation of 
about 700,000 Arabs, the Jewish bodies are spend- 
ing close to half a million dollars a year on about 
110,000 Jews, the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Or- 
ganization of America contributing the bulk of 
this amount. 

For the education of the children of 85 per cent 
of the population the government is spending 
around half a million dollars a year, compared 
with a similar amount the Palestine Foundation 
Fund and the local Jewish population are spend- 
ing for about 15 per cent. The Zionist Organi- 
zation alone spends about $700,000 a year on pro- 
moting agricultural colonization, including valu- 
able experimenting, while the government budget 
for agriculture and forestry is about $175,000, or 
less by more than half a million dollars than the 
Zionists are spending. 

When the Jewish high commissioner left Pales- 
tine, the state was in better condition financially 


212 PALESTINE AWAKE 


than was ever deemed it could be. In the last 
year of his administration, there was a revenue 
over expenditure of more than a million dollars, 
the revenue amounting to $10,000,000. 

The reason for this seeming prosperity for this 
country, which has had to struggle for its ad- 
vances, is that his administration was marked with 
various outstanding features. 

He encouraged labor legislation, and the Jewish 
Labor Federation has a membership of 15,000. 
He gave his attention to education and health 
work. 

This whole matter of development, as to the 
part played by the government and by the Zionist 
Organization, has been well stated by Gershon 
Agronsky, well known international correspond- 
ent, who made an exhaustive study of the situa- 


tion. Mr. Agronsky says: 


The government has done nothing to promote Jewish 
settlement with taxpayers’ money. As far as Jewish 
settlement was concerned, the British authorities simply 
saw to it that it received “fair conditions.” These “fair 
conditions” include a highly improved state of public se- 
curity, which resulted not only in the Jews being able 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE 213 


to go on with their work, but also in the cultivation by 
Arab peasants of thousands of acres they had not the 
security to cultivate before. Government health meas- 
ures benefited mainly the Arabs, because the Jews with 
their own superior network of hospitals and clinics and 
anti-malaria units are virtually independent of the gov- 
ernment. 

Two hundred new schools were opened in Arab vil- 
lages, paid for by public funds raised from both Arab 
and, Jewish taxpayers. Not a single government school 
exists in any Jewish town or village, the Zionist Organi- 
zation providing for the education of about 14,000 chil- 
dren of school age, towards whose education the govern- 
ment contributes a trifling $15,000 out of a budget of 
more than half a million. In the last five years about 
500 miles of roads were built by the government, con-~ 
necting Arab villages, while in many cases roads between 
Jewish settlements were financed exclusively by the 
Zionist Organization and built by Jewish labor. 

It is common knowledge that where a Jewish village 
has been planted next to an Arab one, the Arab peasants 
find a market for their products and work for their 
spare hands. Incidentally their sanitary and economic 
standards are inevitably raised. The impact of the 
Western civilization the Jews bring with them from 
European countries cannot long knock against the an- 


cient barriers without wearing them down to an extent. 


214 PALESTINE AWAKE 


But it is not only the Arab peasant who is benefiting 
from his Jewish neighbor. The landlord, the peasants’ 
master, is richer than ever before. The class that shouts 
down every attempt at codperation sells land to the Jew- 
ish societies and individuals, who pay more than a fair 
price. 

The result is seen in the prosperity in such non- 
Jewish centres of population as Nablus, Hebron, and 
Bethlehem with their many new houses, better dressed 
population, and automobiles of the latest and most ex- 
pensive makes. 

The education and health requirements of the Chris- 
tian minority are looked after by Christian bodies 
throughout the world. The money contributed for 
charitable purposes in behalf of Christians and Chris- 
tianity 1s administered by the Patriarchates of the vari- 
ous denominations, the Greek, Latin, Armenian, and also 
by the Anglican Bishop who superintends the English 
College for Young Men, St. George’s School for Boys, 
the Girls’ College, and other British and American In- 
stitutions whose influence on modern education in Pales- 
tine, especially among Christians, is very considerable. 
Missionary schools and hospitals do a great deal to re- 
lieve the government burden in these fields, allowing the 
authorities to spend all that the revenue will permit on 
caring for the Arab population, which is perhaps go per 


cent Mohammedan. 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE 215 


One of the liabilities inherited by the British adminis- 
tration from Turkish times is the Ottoman Law. Un- 
der the Mandate this must remain fundamentally the 
Law of the Realm. The problem before the high com- 
missioner and his legal advisers has been to adapt these 
laws to modern needs. It was also necessary to over- 
haul the old judiciary, which came down as part of 
the legacy with the Turkish code. At the same time it 
was essential to rectify the economic policy of previous 
years, which impeded agricultural and industrial prog- 
ress without bringing in adequate income from Customs. 

A Supreme Court, a Court of Appeal, and a Court of 
Criminal Assize have been established during the last 
two years, the members being; British, Arab, and Jewish, 
with the British sitting in the high places and the native 
judges in the lower. The combination is sometimes em- 
barrassing, particularly in cases involving political or 
religious complications. At the same time, justice was 
done to the Jewish community, which under the Turks 
had to take all questions of trusts and of personal status 
to the Moslem Religious Court. Under a recent ordi- 
nance, questions regarding religious Jewish property are 
dealt with by the Rabbinical Court. 


All through Palestine I was constantly con- 
fronted with the statement that the former high 
commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel, although a 


216 PALESTINE AWAKE 


Jew, was even more partial to the Arab popula- 
tion than to his own people. 

Mingled with the regrets over Samuel’s de- 
parture from office, although he may return to 
Palestine after a while to live as a private citizen, 
is the speculation on account of Lord Plumer, the 
new high commissioner. The Jews are a little 
fearful that the appointment of a military man 
may have been designed by the British authorities 
as a means of dashing to the ground their hopes of 
a “purely self-governing community” in measur- 
able time. 

On this point their anxiety is shared by the 
Arabs, who see in it a definite blow to their pros- 
pect of an Arab Palestine, and of its ever forming 
part of the unrealized and perhaps unrealizable 
Pan-Arab Union. 

To the credit of both it should be said that, 
notwithstanding these speculations, Arab and Jew 
are facing the new régime with calm confidence, 
both knowing there is no going back in the general 
progress since Samuel helped the country turn the 
corner. Both are hoping for a “‘fair run.” 


Lord and Lady Plumer, with whom I had the 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE 217 


pleasure of lunching, impressed me with their 
earnestness and desire to be strictly impartial and 
fair. The high commissioner possesses much 
more of the so-called humanitarian quality in his 
make-up than is generally conceded a man who 
has spent his life mainly with military matters. 
Lady Plumer, who has in the past done con- 
siderable welfare work, is deeply concerned with 
efforts in behalf of helpless children. I believe 
that neither the Jews nor the Arabs will need to 
complain as to the part Lord Plumer will play in 
rendering justice as far as he is capable. 

After all, it was England who first extended 
the hand of helpfulness to the Jew in the desire 
for a homeland. The Balfour Declaration, to 
which Zionist Jews cling with such tenderness and 


tenacity, says: 


His Majesty’s Government views with favor the es- 
tablishment in Palestine of a national home for the 
Jewish people, and will use its best endeavors to facili- 


tate the achievement of this object. 


Following this declaration, others high in the 


affairs of the world came forward in the cause of 


218 PALESTINE AWAKE 


a homeland for the Jews. Woodrow Wilson, the 
war president, stated: 


I have awaited with deep and sincere interest the 
reconstruction work which the Weizmann Commission 
has done in Palestine at the expense of the British Gov- 
ernment and I welcome the opportunity to express the 
satisfaction I have felt in the progress of the Zionist 
Movement in the United States and in the Allied coun- 
tries since the declaration by Mr. Balfour on behalf of 
the British Government of Great Britain’s approval of 
the establishment in Palestine of a national home for 
the Jewish people, and his promise that the British Goy- 
ernment would use its best endeavor to facilitate the 
achievement of every object, with the understanding 
that nothing would be done to prejudice the civil and 
religious rights of Non-Jewish people in Palestine or 
the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in other 
countries. 

I think that all Americans will be deeply moved by 
the report that even in this time of stress the Weizmann 
Commission has been able to lay the foundation of a 
Hebrew University with the promise that bears of spir- 
itual rebirth. 


The Pope also stated that he “views with entire 
sympathy the Jewish efforts for the regaining of 
Palestine. We shall be good neighbors.” 


THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE 219 


This and all other similar declarations played 
no small part in the League of Nations delibera- 
tions in presenting the mandate to England to 
help the Jews promote their homeland. Whether 
we shall see the final act of this drama of a great 
dream or not, the fact remains that the greatest 
change in the history of the world 1s to-day being 
wrought in the land of the Bible. 





APPENDIX A 
WORK OF THE PRO-JERUSALEM SOCIETY 


By Sir Ronald Storrs, C.M.G., C.B.E., Governor 
of Jerusalem and President of the Pro-Jerusalem 


Society 


{Sir Ronald Storrs, governor of Palestine, realizing the im- 
portance of preserving the ancient landmarks, organized the 
Pro-Jerusalem Society. Perhaps there is no work so important 
to the general public, especially to the lovers of the Bible, as 
this of preserving the historic places, which will likely drop 
into woeful decay if the work does not go forward. It is 
pathetic, to say the least, that it has been hampered solely 
through lack of funds. The following is a statement by Sir 
Ronald Storrs taken in the last report of the Pro-Jerusalem So- 


ciety, which was written in April, 1924.] 


Although the second volume of the records of the Pro- 
Jerusalem Society does not strictly include more than the 
years 1920-22, I propose to offer for the information of 
members and of the public a very brief review of its 
activities up to the date of writing. 

As stated in the preface to the first volume, there 
were, and always will remain, many aspects of civic 
life, more especially in this unique city, in which no 


221 


a2 APPENDICES 


military administration, no civil government even, could, 
without thwarting civic and individual effort, occupy it- 
self, however sympathetically inclined. 

The objects of the Society, as defined in the charter, 
are the preservation and advancement of the interest of 


Jerusalem, its district and inhabitants, more especially: 


1. The protection of and the addition to the amenities 
of Jerusalem and its district. 

2. The provision and maintenance of parks, gardens, 
and open spaces in Jerusalem and its district. 

3. The establishment in the district of Jerusalem of 
museums, libraries, art galleries, exhibitions, 
musical and dramatic centers, or other institu- 
tions of a similar nature for the benefit of the 
public. 

4. The protection and preservation, with the consent 
of the government, of the antiquities in the 
district of Jerusalem. 

5. The encouragement in the district of Jerusalem of 
arts, handicrafts, and industries in consonance 
with the general objects of the Society. 

6. The administration of any immovable property in 
the district of Jerusalem which is acquired by the 
Society or intrusted to it by any person or cor- 
poration with a view to securing the improvement 
of the property and the welfare of its tenants 
or occupants. 


APPENDICES 223 


7. To cooperate with the Departments of Education, 
Agriculture, Public Health, Public Works, so 
far as may be in harmony with the general ob- 


jects of the Society. 


It being clearly impossible for a governor, military or 
civil, to superintend, still less to carry out in detail the 
execution of this highly technical program, I requested 
Mr. C. R. Ashbee, then in Cairo, to visit Jerusalem and 
to report upon its possibilities in this respect. After 
perusal of his interesting and highly suggestive report, I 
offered to him, and he accepted, the post of civic ad- 
viser, which included that of secretary to the Society. 
Mr. Ashbee began work at once, and for nearly four 
years rendered loyal and excellent service to Pro- 
Jerusalem. The weaving and tile-making industries 
were established, and the Rampart Walk round the walls 
was cleared and restored. 

Mr. Ashbee retired in 1922, and was succeeded by Mr. 
A. C. Holliday, the present civic adviser. Since that 
date several works and projects of works have to be re- 
ported. Special efforts have been made to improve the 
condition of the Citadel. Many minor repairs have been 
executed on the crenelated and parapet walls, and repairs 
to the South Tower are actually in progress. Designs 
have been prepared for a stone bridge at the entrance of 
the Citadel. The Turkish barrack buildings within the 
courtyard are in process of removal, and over six 


224 APPENDICES 


thousand cubic meters of buildings and stone have al- 
ready been dug up and carted away. 

The clock tower erected by the loyal burgesses of 
Jerusalem, in a style midway between that of the Eddy- 
stone lighthouse and a jubilee memorial to commemorate 
the thirty-third year of the auspicious reign of the late 
Sultan Abdul Hamid, has been bodily removed from the 
north side of the Jaffa Gate, which it too long disfigured, 
and is being set up again in fulfilment of a promise 
(less aggressively and shorn of its more offensive trim- 
mings) in the central and suitable neighborhood of the 
Post-office Square. 

Stricter measures are being enforced for the preserva- 
tion of the traditional building style of Jerusalem, of- 
fensive and unsuitable materials are being prohibited 
or removed, and an effective control of new buildings and 
town-planning sections has been instituted. The size of 
shop signs, which had become of recent years a serious 
disfigurement to the city, has been regulated by munici- 
pal by-laws, under which also the posting of bills, pla- 
cards, and advertisements is restricted to moderate-sized 
notice-boards displayed in specially chosen localities. 
The majority of the streets have been named by a spe- 
cial committee representative of the three great religions, 
and the names blazoned in the three official languages in 
colored and glazed Dome of the Rock tiles. For the 
first time in the history of the city the houses of 


APPENDICES 225 


Jerusalem are being numbered. A map is being pub- 
lished to a scale of 1:5000 in English, Arabic, and 
Hebrew, giving contours and street names. A civic sur- 
vey and a comprehensive town plan are in course of 
preparation. 

The Society is taking a prominent part in the Palestine 
Pavilion of the British Empire Exhibition. The cele- 
brated models of the Temples will be exhibited, and the 
Dome of the Rock and other pottery, with the Hebron 
glass products, will be sold in the Pavilion. All profits, 
after reimbursement of the heavy initial expenditure, 
will be devoted to the work of the Society in Jerusalem. 

Early last year I traveled to the United States with the 
object of enlisting the interest, sympathy, and assistance 
of that generous nation. I have to record with gratitude 
the chivalrous reception accorded to my remote and un- 
usual quest, in so much that a sojourn forcibly limited to 
twenty days resulted in subscriptions and donations 
amounting to several thousand pounds. 

The monthly expenditure of the Society is about $1000 
(exclusive of the exceptional British Empire Exhibition 
expenses). As the government grant of $5000 will prob- 
ably have to be withdrawn, new members and donations 
are urgently needed. 

The following special projects are in contemplation, 
and are detailed in the hope of striking the imagination 


of friends, as yet unknown, who may perhaps desire to 


226 APPENDICES 


associate their names with some specific achievement of 


permanent benefit to the Holy City: 


Seats in Palestine marble or other good 

stone for the Society’s parks and gar- 

dens; the donor’s name will be carved 

upon the seat— from $ 100 
Seats in wood or iron at convenient 

points in the Rampart Walk or in the 

gardens; the donor’s name will be cut 

or painted on the seat— from 10-25 
Repairs to the walls of Jerusalem, to be 

done in sections— 5,000 
Upkeep of the School of Ceramics— 2,500 
Repairs to Citadel (site of Palace of 

Herod the Great) in sections in its dif- 

ferent towers, and excavations— 10,000 


For the establishment of a Museum to 


house the Society’s collection— 2,500 
For repairs to the seven gates of Jeru- 

salem, each about 250 
Minor repairs to the historic bazaars— from 50 


Gifts of historical subjects (Palestine 
history) for the Society's Museum. 
Gifts of examples of arts and crafts, es- 
pecially examples of Oriental weaving 
and embroidery for the School of 

Textiles. 


APPENDICES 229 


I would like to take this opportunity of thanking the 
high commissioner for his never-failing interest and sup- 
port, and the departing assistant governor, Mr. H. C. 
Luke, whose activities and vigilance recently evoked from 
the Council a unanimous resolution appointing him to 
lifelong membership; further, the past and present civic 
advisers for their loyal collaboration. I would also place 
on record the debt of gratitude which Jerusalem owes 
to the members of the Council, the mayor, the director of 
antiquities, the Mufti, the Orthodox, the Latin and the 
Armenian patriarchs, the Anglican bishop, the president 
of the Jewish Community, and the other distinguished 
Moslems, Christians, and Jews, all of them busy men 
with urgent and important duties of their own, who, 
nevertheless, have not spared themselves nor their time 
in keeping this constructive and unifying fellowship so 
far as possible abreast with the needs of the time, and 
in holding it above and out of the dust and clamor of 
political and other controversy. 

Of our benefactors, many, who live in remote conti- 
nents, may never witness the results of their generosity ; 
of whom we can but say that, while some little of their 
achievement will be presented to their vision by picture 
and by plan, their true satisfaction will rest rather in the 
sure and certain knowledge that through their loving care- 
fulness Jerusalem will have been preserved nearer to the 


city of their faith and of their dreams. 


APPENDIX B 


JERUSALEM: 1920-22 


By C. R. Ashbee,.M.A., F.R.I.B.A., Sometime Civic 
Adviser to the City of Jerusalem 


The present record carries on the work conceived, 
planned, and started during the period of the British 
military occupation of Palestine. The occupation lasted 
roughly for two years, the civil administration beginning 
on July 1, 1920. The present record, therefore, may be 
taken to cover the two years from that date, and the 
volume containing it might be fitly named “Jerusalem, 
1921-1922,” in effect the two years of civil administra- 
tion that preceded the formal granting of the mandate. 

The principal interest, from a practical point of view, 
in the present discussion will, I think, be found to lie 
in a comparison between what was planned and what 
may have been accomplished—the dream and its realiza- 
tion. The status of the Society in the new administra- 
tion had to be considered, and its relations to such of the 
newly created government departments whose work im- 
pinged upon that of the Society. Thus the conservation 
of public monuments in the Jerusalem area became also 

228 


APPENDICES 229 


a matter for the newly established Department of An- 
tiquities. The town planning of the modern city and 
the making of roads became a matter that also con- 
cerned the newly established Department of Public 
Works and the Town Planning Commission. Further, 
there was during the years 1921 and 1922 a much more 
precise definition of the functions of the Jerusalem munic- 
ipality and those of the Pro-Jerusalem Council and the 
civic adviser. 

Two things became evident during the two years with 
which we are dealing: first, powers and functions which 
were formerly exercised by the Pro-Jerusalem Council 
through the governor’s administrative order were exer- 
cised more and more by the new departments of state; 
and, in the second place, many of the ideas, plans, and 
proposals previously outlined by the Society have been, 
at least as far as Jerusalem is concerned, incorporated 
into the structure of the new state. The Pro-Jerusalem 
Society did its four years’ work during a very plastic 
period in the social history of Palestine. Such laws as 
the Antiquities Ordinance, the Town Planning Ordi- 
nance, the regulations regarding corrugated iron and 
advertisement, the Town Plan with its green belt of 
“reserved area” round the Holy City, the new municipal 
by-laws—all these were largely stimulated by, or were 
the direct outcome of, discussions on the Pro-Jerusalem 


Council, or of action taken by it. As the new social order 


230 APPENDICES 


becomes less plastic and more rigid it will be interesting 
to watch how far the Society is able to go on inspiring 
and molding the new social life. So far much of this 
legislation may be regarded as typical of the post-war 
state. Will it all survive? No community can live for 
long above its own level. Will the new order that is 
shaping in Palestine be able to grow within, and carry 
out, the new laws which its administrators in the years 
1921 and 1922 made for it? The thought contains a 
challenge. 

The Work of Conservation. The disaster of the Great 
War has forced upon all men and women the necessity 
of preserving all that 1s possible of the beauty and the 
purpose, in actual form, of the civilizations that have 
passed before. We have come to see, moreover, that this 
is not a mere matter of archeology or the protection of 
ancient buildings. In the blind mechanical order with 
which we are threatened everything that we associate with 
our sense of beauty is alike in danger. Landscape, the 
unities of streets and sites, the embodied vision of the 
men that set the great whole together, the sense of color 
which in any Oriental city is still a living sense—all 
these things have to be considered practically ; they must, 
to put it plainly, be protected against the incursions of 
the grasping trader, the ignorant workman, the self- 
interested property-owner, and the well-intentioned gov- 


ernment department. 


APPENDICES 231 


In Jerusalem, perhaps more than in any other city, 
these facts are brought home to us. It is a city unique, 
and before all things a city of idealists, a city moreover 
in which the idealists through succeeding generations 
have torn each other and their city to pieces. Over forty 
times has it changed hands in history. And perhaps 
partly because of all this and partly because of the gran- 
deur of its site and surrounding landscape it is a city of 
singular romance and beauty. 

These facts are emphasized by other considerations. 
When the British military administration began work 
there were practically no roads. The Turks only im- 
provised roads, and most of them the Great War had 
destroyed. Next, in the turning of every sod or scrap 
of stone, some historic association 1s affected. There are 
then the interminable questions of prescriptive right in 
venerated sites, the joint ownerships by divers and con- 
flicting religious bodies. The city maintains a large 
parasitic population—priests, caretakers, monks, mission- 
aries, pious women, clerks, lawyers, the motley order 
that has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. 
Here is a force that often makes for what is picturesque 
and conservative, but as often checks the administrator 
in genuine and rational improvement, because the sanc- 
tion for what he wants to do rests not in the city itself, 
but in the great world outside somewhere, hidden away. 
The actual bit of stone or the rubbish-heap we want to 


232 APPENDICES 


clean up may, it is true, belong to some Greek, or Mos- 
lem, or Jew; but the Armenian, the English Protestant, 
the Abyssinian, the American missionary, the Italian, the 
Wakf in India, the Copt, the other fellow somewhere— 
they all have a word to say on the matter, and before 
we do anything we must wait to hear it. 

And, last, there has been the fact that has necessarily 
modified alike the enterprise of the Pro-Jerusalem Society 
and the administration: there has been very little money 
to do anything with. This, though it may cripple his- 
torical research, may also be a protection against vandal- 
ism or ill-considered enterprise, for one great power at 
least the administrator of to-day possesses, the power of 
sitting tight and doing nothing, of stopping unintelligent 
or destructive action, of waiting till a better day. If he 
have taste, though he himself be precluded from all crea- 
tion, he can at least prevent foolish or wanton things 
from being done. That has, in the Holy City during 
the last five years, been a very great help. 

And one thing we whose concern is civics must always 
remember. In the conservation of a city, whether it be 
like London, Paris, Rome, or New York, well within the 
great stream of the world, or whether like Jerusalem set 
upon a hilltop and remote, what we are conserving is not 
only the things themselves, the streets, the houses, spires, 
towers, and domes, but the way of living, the idealism, 


the feeling for righteousness and fitness which these 


APPENDICES 233 


things connote, and with which every city with any claim 
to dignity and beauty is instinct. 

I will now take the Society’s work of conservation in 
detail and begin with the Citadel of Jerusalem. This 
has been the center of its activities. There are, includ- 
ing the little tower at the entrance gate and the old 
draw-bridge, seven main towers in the Citadel, and to 
all but one of these the Society during the last two years 
did some important structural work. 

One of the most important pieces of structural repair 
has been that on the East or Second Tower (see C on 
Plan No. 1), which was taken in hand with the financial 
help of the Department of Antiquities. Some of the 
Roman stone-work, reset in Moslem times, was disinte- 
grating. 

To the outside of the Tower of David nothing was 
done, but the Society repaired and opened out the inte- 
rior, making of the great central chamber a rather beau- 
tiful exhibition-room. 

A like work was carried out in the Hippicus Tower. 
This, which before and during the war was a hospital for 
spotted fever, was carefully put in order and the interior 
converted into two large exhibition-rooms. The Hippi- 
cus Tower flanking the Jaffa Road, and opposite the 
Jaffa Gate, is necessarily one of the main features of any 
improvement scheme in this part of the city, as will be 


seen later when the Jaffa Gate improvement is consid- 


234 APPENDICES 


ered. The Society, therefore, arranged with the Depart- 
ment of Antiquities to have this tower specially measured. 

The last of the towers, upon which the Society was at 
work in 1922, is the Southwest Tower in which a serious 
crack showed itself in the summer of 1922. This tower, 
the fall of which would endanger the minaret, is one of 
the most distinguished of all the Citadel towers. Though 
the Society at the time had no money, it was felt that 
special sacrifices must be made and the $1500 needed 
for its protection somehow or other found. 

It will, I think, be agreed that these various works, 
undertaken at a total cost of about $5000 (the exact 
figure during the financial year 1921 was $2475, the bal- 
ance having been spent later, show no mean record of 
conservation, taken over a period of two years. And, 
indeed, the work was needed. There had been no repair 
for more than ten years, and much of the Citadel was in 
danger of falling. Much yet remains to do, and much 
of the most interesting work historically is below the 
ground level or in the blocked-up passages beneath or 
skirting the glacis, or even under the moat. But the 
Citadel of Jerusalem is one of those buildings upon which 
the architect and the archeologist join issue. The 
archeologist would wish to dig it up and search its 
origins. ‘To do this he has to kill the building. The 
architect insists that as the building is still alive and 


serving a purpose, noble and beautiful, it must be so 


APPENDICES 


a. Tower of David. 
b, Entrance, or Drawbridge Tower, 

c. Lhe Second Tower 

d. The South-East Tower. 

e. The dismantled and ruined Keep. 
#. The Minaret and South-West Tower. 
g. The Terrace above the glacis. 

h. The Mosque. 

4. The Hippicus Tower, 

j. Fosse, new Citadel Garden. 

k. The Jaffa Gate. 

1, The Rampart Walk, 

m. The Barracks. 


Key Plan of the Citadel, 


235 





236 APPENDICES 


kept. The later periods cannot be disturbed to reveal 
the earlier. Architecture here is more important than 
archeology. 

The work on the Citadel leads inevitably to that of 
the ramparts. The preserving and opening out of the 
Rampart, or Sentinel’s Walk, is now to all intents and 
purposes complete. All encroachments except one have 
been cleared away; that one, the most difficult of all, is 
at the two ends of the Haram al Sherif. The difficulty 
is not technical, it is political and it is greater than it 
was at the close of the military administration. In tech- 
nical matters that affect the general welfare or the amen- 
ities of the whole community alike it was often easier to 
get things done then than now. The precise way in 
which it is proposed to solve the problem of linking up 
the last section of the walk that will pass across the Al 
Aqsa Mosque is not yet determined. An inconspicuous 
iron way, skirting the Al Agsa outside, is suggested. 
The roof of the Franciscan Convent, where a gabled roof 
had been built over, and a butting upon the Rampart 
Walk parapet, was, by arrangement with His Reverence 
the President of the Franciscan Community, brought 
down to the level of the walk, thus preserving the public 
right of way. 

An instance of the manner in which the activities of 
the Pro-Jerusalem Society have automatically come to 
be incorporated in the working legislation of the city 


APPENDICES 237 


is furnished by the Latin Patriarchate, with its garden 
skirting the walk. Beyond is the Citadel with the Hip- 
picus Tower and David’s Tower. A permit to build 
had been asked for at a point blocking out the view of 
the towers from the walk. The Society had nothing to 
do with the case except through its representative officer, 
myself, with whom lay the decision as to whether it 
should be brought up at the Town Planning Commission. 
With this body, under the new law, rests the final deci- 
sion as to whether or not permits shall be allowed that 
affect the town plan. The case was heard, and the com- 
mission disallowed the permit and ruled that the building- 
line of the Latin Patriarchate must be followed. A prec- 
edent of the utmost importance under the new law was 
thus established which may have the effect of saving 
large portions of the city from destruction. 

I now come to the gates. During the two years effec- 
tive work has been done upon three: the Jaffa Gate, the 
Damascus Gate, and Herod’s Gate. Over the last of 
these the Rampart Walk was cleared. At Damascus 
Gate an important piece of repair work was undertaken 
on the pinnacles, again with the financial assistance of 
the Department of Antiquities. Beneath these pinnacles, 
in the eastern wing of the gate, one of the old guard- 
rooms was cleaned up and let as a studio. It is now in 
the occupation of Mr. Melnikoff, the sculptor. The 


more important scheme of the khan outside the Damascus 


238 APPENDICES 


Gate, which has also been considered by the Society, I 
shall deal with later, as it affects town planning rather 
than conservation, though, indeed, the partial opening 
up of the Roman arch and levels is involved. 

For the Jatta Gate the Council worked out a definite 
scheme entailing the removal of the clock-tower. It is 
now proposed, in deference to wishes of the donors, to re- 
place it elsewhere. The Rampart Walk was opened out 
through the Jaffa Gate, an attempt having been made 
to convert that entrance into private property. 

In the old sugs and covered ways of the city the So- 
ciety was unfortunately not able, on account of lack of 
funds, to do what should be done. One piece of work, 
however, was well carried through, and this largely ow- 
ing to the enterprise of the mayor of Jerusalem, Ragib 
Bey Nashashibi. The matter is one of finance. It is 
much to be hoped that the plan of the pro-rata levy on 
property-owners will shortly be worked out. To this 
could be added, where needed, the sums budgeted for 
the up-keep of historic buildings in the municipal budget. 

These ancient sugs of Jerusalem are unique. ‘Their 
present state and the photographic records scattered up 
and down the Society’s records should be studied side by 
side with Pere Abel’s plan of the medieval city. 

A matter upon which the Society would have liked to 
take action, but which unfortunately went no further 


than report and conservative advice, was the state of the 


APPENDICES 239 


houses in the Tariq Bab al Selseleh, the most beautiful 
street in Jerusalem. Most of these houses are private, 
and Wakf property; moreover, they are almost entirely 
Moslem. An occasional bit of pointing, the saving of a 
stone or an inscription here and there, would be of im- 
mense, because of timely, help. It is a matter upon 
which the Pro-Jerusalem Society and the Wakf might 
cooperate. Here, again, technical matters are often af- 
fected adversely by political considerations. 

The New Town Plan. A study in the Council’s work 
upon the new city during the years 1921-22 becomes 
inevitably a study in town planning, and town planning 
of a very practical and direct kind. Not only had a new 
city to be planned; the law had to be drafted that should 
make this planning possible, and the machinery set up 
that should give effect to the law. Moreover, all the 
remains of the old Turkish order had to be taken over, 
and this often made direct action or a “clean slate”’ 
impossible. 

It was after many informal conferences between mem- 
bers of the Council, Professor Geddes, Dr. Ruppin, the 
legal adviser, the governor of Jerusalem, and myself 
that the law was finally got into shape for drafting, and 
it was the two years’ experience of the Pro-Jerusalem 
Society that provided the necessary data, or indicated 
how much of the modern Western town-planning legis- 


lation it might be possible to use in Palestine. 


240 APPENDICES 


The Palestine Town Planning Ordinance then may be 
said to have come into existence largely as the result of 
the spade-work done in the city by the Council of the 
Pro-Jerusalem Society. It has been complained that the 
ordinance is complicated and difficult to understand, that 
it 1s impossible to render in the three official languages, 
that it is, in parts, as a*mere matter of machinery, un- 
workable. Some of these criticisms were found to be 
just, and in 1922 an amending ordinance was passed to 
give effect to them. And there is much of real truth in 
them. Laws and ordinances that are suitable to Western 
cities, and partly because of the way in which their citi- 
zens observe and administer them, may not be suitable 
to Eastern cities, or it may be a very long time before 
they are. 

The question whether the work initiated by the Pro- 
Jerusalem Society in the new town plan succeeds or not 
will depend very largely upon whether the members of 
the Town Planning Commission appointed under the 
ordinance to carry out the town plan understand and can 
administer the great trust committed to them. It is that 
commission which has now taken over all the duties of 
the Pro-Jerusalem Society in respect of the town plan, 
and their success or failure will largely affect all the 
other cities of Palestine. 

There stand to the credit of the Jerusalem Town 
Planning Commission, which may then be justly claimed 


APPENDICES 241 


as the child of the Pro-Jerusalem Society, four important 
pieces of work during the years 1921 and 1922. 


1. The establishment of the new town boundaries. 


WN 


. The zoning of the city in general outline. 

3. The first draft of the new body of by-laws and reg- 
ulations that shall give effect to the law. 

4. The lay-out and alining of eight sections of the 


new city. 


The now established boundaries lie along the nearest 
convenient geographical points within the dotted con- 
taining line, but including the villages of Saafat, El- 
Isawiye, El-Azarie, Mar Elias, Der Jasin, and Lifta. 

A word is needed here on the vitally important ques- 
tion of survey. The Pro-Jerusalem Society fought 
bravely, and for long unsuccessfully, for a proper sur- 
vey of the city. Every town planner knows that without 
the preliminary datum of a correct survey the making 
of a town plan is an impossibility. The military admin- 
istration took a different view. They held that the town 
plan might be made, but refused to sanction any budget 
for the survey; the municipal surveyor’s office was thus 
broken up, and the staff discharged. This threw the 
work back for two years, and it was not until the civil 
administration was well established that this was rem- 
edied. On the key plan the central portions of the new 
city are based upon the municipal survey of Mr. Guini, 


the outlying portions upon the official survey of Palestine 


242 APPENDICES 


which his Excellency the High Commissioner put at the 
service of the city. Thus whereas the McLean and 
Geddes plans are based on incorrect data, the eight sec- 
tions of the new town plan are fixed upon data that 
claim to be accurate. 

Zoning, indeed, as understood in European cities, is 
hardly yet possible in the East. There is too much 
medievalism, too much muddle and litter of Western in- 
dustrialism to be first cleared out of the way, and, above 
all, the people themselves are not as yet ready to act in 
accordance with the laws when these are made. They 
are still too dependent upon orders imposed from above. 
In some respects this makes our task as town planners 
easier, but in so far as we try as administrators to en- 
courage the citizens to think, act, and legislate for them- 
selves, we are handicapped because an ideal order is 
postulated. 

To make the town plan itself ideal predicates a good 
deal more than town planning. Thus we have after 
long and careful study to set the roads where they should 
go, we have to consider all the beauty-spots, we have to 
save and link up all the historic buildings, we have to 
tear down and clear away all the ugly things and make 
the private give way to the public interests. That is the 
ideal way. The City of Jerusalem is worthy such a 
treatment. As a matter of practical experience and 


where there is no money what happens is very different. 


APPENDICES 243, 


RoR cia 
6 
s 
. 
\ 
Be ee eae 


web nn ee wee 


BES 


ry ems reg 7 ee Ssee! 


Valley of Mes 


I MMe ¥ Ape 
f/f / 7 / i) 
J 7 ie / f iv 
ah fal 4 WY THY Srl sh 
PA? 


No new buildings to be allowed 


inthis aree,and existing heights 


not to be exceeded vs, AO 
? Lstrine 
(To be planted 


caine with itresa) Hypothetical tine of ofd fosse f 


\ & boundary of Citadel Gardens 


Engineers \ 
Piet yee when completed 





| 


1 
\ 
t 





Cee esl 


t 


Jaffe Gate Maidan Improvement Scheme, with Market. SS) 


244 APPENDICES 


It is impossible to get out of the hard rut of existing 
roads; all we can do is to widen a little. It is difficult, 
often impossible, to touch buildings that are in the hands 
of religious bodies. There is as yet neither money nor 
administrative machinery to keep in repair historic build. 
ings, and many of the finest of these are in private hands. 
The real work is, after all, not the drawing of the city 
plan on paper, nor the description of it in a book, nor 
the comments on it in an office file, nor even the making 
of a picture of it for the walls of the Royal Academy. 
The real work is to administer it intelligently and toward 
the shaping of a more or less ideal end. The only test 
of this is the beauty and the comeliness of the city itself. 

Markets and Khans. The work on the markets has 
progressed but slowly. There has been no money. 
And private enterprise does not move readily in a mold 
meant for public benefit; but Mr. Valero, one of the 
owners of the Mahanna Yuda property, expressed his 
willingness to carry out the scheme, and the tenants of 
the miserable booths which still disgrace the entrance to 
the modern city from the Jaffa side have been given 
notice. 

More important is the scheme of the Jaffa Gate Mar- 
ket. Here the efforts of the Town Planning Commis- 
sion, of the municipality, and the Pro-Jerusalem Society, 
are combined. The inception was with the last. The 


commission approved the scheme in principle; the work- 


APPENDICES 245 


ing out of the finance, in other words the collection and 
adjustment of the market dues that will cover the pay- 
ment of interest on the loan, is with the municipality. 

When once the market is moved from the Citadel Fosse 
and the latter opened out, the whole Jaffa Gate improve- 
ment scheme will be within measurable distance of ac- 
complishment. This market improvement project should, 
from the civic point of view, be studied in conjunction 
with the new ridge road that lies to the north, the Jewish 
scheme for the new business quarter of Antiochus that 
lies to the northeast of it, and the new hotel, the site of 
which will be seen to the northwest. 

Closely akin to the schemes put up for market improve- 
ments in the city is that of the proposed khan at Damas- 
cus Gate, immediately opposite the Governorate. The 
object here is not only to clear away the unsightly shops 
and corrugated iron buildings that obliterate the Damas- 
cus Gate, but also to accommodate the Bedouins and their 
camels that enter the city here in great numbers. Here, 
again, the Valero family, who, it is suggested, shall build 
and hold the khan as a private undertaking, have evinced 
a sympathetic interest in the work. As the area of the 
proposed khan is reserved and may not be further built 
on, and as the corrugated iron when it falls will not, 
under the ordinance, be renewed, it is to be hoped that 
in default of other more profitable ventures the build- 


ing of the khan will materialize. 


246 APPENDICES 


The Naming of the Streets. The record of the civic 
work of the Pro-Jerusalem Council during the year 1922 
would not be complete without an account of the street 
naming. A special subcommittee was, at the instance of 
his Excellency the High Commissioner, formed to un- 
dertake this most interesting and by no means easy task. 
The names had to be in the three official languages, and 
the three traditions, Christian, Moslem, and Jewish, had, 
so far as possible, to be preserved. Not only that, their 
connotations in the language in which they had no pre- 
cise meaning had often to be sought out. Here was 
scope not only for scholarship but acute political division, 
and the subcommittee had on several occasions to be 
steered over very dangerous rocks. That was the work 
of the assistant governor, who was chairman of the sub- 
committee. The list is full of history, poetry, and folk- 
lore; there are such names as David Street (Tariq Meh- 
rab Daud), Street of the Chain (Tariq Bab al Selseleh), 
Way of Zion Gate (Tarig al Nabi Daud), Street of the 
Latins (Tariq al Latin), Dancing Dervish Street (Tariq 
al Maulawiych). 

Finance. A word in conclusion as to the Society’s 
finance. The administration gives to the Society dollar 
for dollar of what it receives in subscriptions and dona- 
tions. These during the year ending January, 1922, 
amounted to $6090, so that the income, exclusive of spe- 
cial grants for education or fresh subscriptions and do- 


APPENDICES 247 


nations, will for the current year be double that sum. 
As this record is taken up to the end of the second year 
of the civil administration, i.e., July 1, 1922, it is only 
possible to give complete accounts to the end of the year 
1921. This I do below, showing how the money re- 


ceived by the Society was accounted for. 





Receipts 

Balance in hand from January 1, 1921 $4,285 
By grants, subscriptions, and receipts from all 

sources 26,340 
$30,625 

Payments 
By total expenditure for the year $26,380 
Balance in hand on December 31, 1921 4,245 
$30,625 


The Society had liabilities in respect of payments still 
due before next June 30, contracts with its apprentices, 
etc., amounting to about $2500. It had assets in the cap- 
italized value of its rent-bearing properties, its stocks of 
iron, wood, books, trees, nursery, glass, and museum ob- 
jects, but of these none except the books and the glass 


are to be considered as marketable. 


APPENDIX C 


COUNCIL OF THE PRO-JERUSALEM SOCIETY 


Founded September, 1918 
Incorporated October, 1920 (under the Palestine 
Administration ) 

Honorary President 
The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Samuel, C.B.E., 
High Commissioner of Palestine 
President 
Sir Ronald Storrs, C.M.G., C.B.E., Governor 
of Jerusalem 
Council 
Honorary Member: The Right Hon. Viscount 
. Milner, K.G., G.C.B. 


Members 


The Mayor of Jerusalem 

The Director of Antiquities. 

His Eminence the Rais Al-’ Ulema 
His Beatitude the Orthodox Patriarch 
His Beatitude the Latin Patriarch 


248 


APPENDICES 249 


His Beatitude the Armenian Patriarch 

The Right Rev. the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem 

The Very Rev. the Custodian of Terra Santa 

His Reverence the Superior of the Dominican Convent 

The Very Rev. Chief Rabbi Kuk 

The Representative of the Palestine Zionist Executive 

Le Rev. Pére Abel (Ecole Biblique de Saint-Etienne) 

Mr. C. R. Ashbee, M.A., F.R.I.B.A. (late Civic Adviser) 

Le Capitaine Barluzzi 

Captain K. A. C. Creswell, M.B.E. (late Inspector of 
Monuments, G.S., O.E.T.A.) 

Dr. M. Eliash, B.Litt. 

Professor Patrick Geddes 

Mr. R. A. Harari 

Muza Kazem Pasha al-Husseini, C.B.E. 

Mr. H. C. Luke, B.Litt., M.A. (Assistant Governor of 
Jerusalem) 

Mr. J. Meyuhas, M.B.E. 

Mr. E. T. Richmond 

Mr. D. G. Salameh 

Dr. Nahum Slousch 

Mr. Jacob Spafford 

Le Rev. Pére Vincent (Ecole Biblique de Saint-Etienne) 

Mr. John Whiting 

Mr. David Yellin, MB.E. (Vice-Mayor of Jerusalem) 

Mr. A. C. Holliday, B.A., Civic Adviser (Honorary 
Secretary ) 


ep 
Le "an a 
Ras 


ie 
fiw sce 
oy 
Bat 
At Ae 
hs 








il 





